Wigan winger Dom Manfredi’s ten-month injury nightmare is coming to an end, Warriors coach Shaun Wane has revealed.
The 23-year-old has not played since suffering a serious knee injury during Wigan’s game against Castleford last August, with it initially feared he would miss a whole season due to the severity of the problem.
However, Wane told reporters at his pre-match media conference on Tuesday that Manfredi could be set to return within the next month – and potentially in time for their Challenge Cup semi-final with Salford at the end of July.
“Dom’s not far off – two or three weeks, I reckon,” Wane said.
“I’ve not been told that by a physio, but I’ve seen him running and he looks good.
“He’s going well – very, very well. Hopefully things keep going the same way but it was a serious injury he had, so I don’t want to start putting concrete times on him (returning).”
Wane is also confident that with more and more of his key stars returning from injury, Wigan can begin to climb the Super League table.
He welcomed back six big names for Saturday’s cup win at Warrington and, with more set to return in the coming weeks, Wane believes the reigning Super League champions are now on the right track.
“It’s been a tough period having so many quality players out, players with a lot of experience, but now training is a bit easier.
“We had a good win at the weekend and hopefully we can back it up now with a good win on Friday (against Huddersfield).
“This is the important part now. We have got five really big games coming up, then we have got a semi-final and then we’re into the Super 8s. We’ve got to make sure we concentrate on every one of these games.
“With those players back, I think we are going to improve with every performance until the end of the season.”
