Brian McDermott believes his Toronto side is getting better, but admits he’s not sure how he’ll raise a team next week.
The Wolfpack impressed before going down to a 32-10 defeat to Wigan, despite being level going into the final quarter.
It was Toronto’s best performance of the season so far, however, with Jon Wilkin pulling out with a knee problem in the warm-up and James Cunningham suffering a hamstring injury in the opening stages, Toronto are now down to just 16 available players, with Joe Mellor and Darcy Lussick injured, Sonny Bill Williams in New Zealand with his pregnant partner, Chase Stanley still awaiting his visa and Greg Worthington out on loan at Featherstone.
“I thought it was a damp game against Castleford, our performance, our energy and our attitude towards the tough moments, I didn’t think that was good round one.
“Against Salford, I thought we improved hugely and against Wigan there tonight we improved again, we’re adding elements to our game every week and I thought we were good for a win for a fair while in that game.”
On his selection issues, McDermott said of Wilkin: “His knee locked. Because he’s 57 he’s just got that much wrong with his knee at the moment. Every now and again those loose bones that a lot of these players have just trapped in his knee. He could walk around tomorrow alright, it could unlock tonight in bed. But he couldn’t straighten his knee so he had to pull out.
“We’ll check in with Sonny Bill, he’s by his wife’s bedside at the moment so we’ll go through a good procedure there, we’re not going to drag him away from there. Joe Mellor won’t be right but it’s not as bad as we imagined, he’s broken something in his hand. We’ll see. Chase Stanley is still in Australia waiting for a visa, as soon as that paperwork drops on his doorstep he’s coming over. He’s been applied for and no hold up, we’re just waiting for the piece of paper.”
