Warrington Wolves centre Connor Wrench has been ruled out for a month with a stress fracture in his back.
The 20-year-old started their Super League opener at Leeds Rhinos but missed out on last week’s win over Castleford Tigers with the problem.
Wolves boss Daryl Powell has now put a timeframe on the injury as he provided an update on his squad ahead of this weekend’s trip to Toulouse Olympique.
“He’s got a stress fracture which is probably going to keep him out for between four and five weeks,” said Powell.
“It’s disappointing for him, he played against Leeds and looked sharp. We’ve got Toby (King) available but I’m disappointed for Connor and I’m looking forward to seeing how grows through the year.”
Warrington will also be without Ben Currie in France, after the back-row suffered a sternum injury in the Castleford contest.
“He’s not too bad,” Powell said of Currie. “He played last week with a sternum injury which hampered him during the game and he came off.
“We decided he needed more time to recover. They’re pretty difficult injuries to get over.
“I think he’ll be okay next week, but we’ve got some big games coming up and we want him to be 100 per cent.”
However, new signing Billy Magoulias is still several weeks away from making his Warrington debut after picking up an ankle injury in pre-season.
Saturday’s opponents Toulouse have lost both their opening fixtures as well as star players Johnathon Ford and Mark Kheirallah, but the Wolves won’t be complacent about a potentially tricky tie ahead.
“It’ll be a tough game,” said Powell. “The conditions look good. They’ve got some really good players.
“(Tony) Gigot in there is doing some really good things in terms of his kicking game and challenging.
“It’s more about us, I want to make it about us. They’ll really try and disrupt, their line speed is good, they’ll try to shut plays down, and you need a really patient approach.”
