INJURY UPDATE
The Vikings have no new injury concerns heading into this Sunday’s trip to West Yorkshire. Last Sunday’s 70-18 victory over Workington saw us race to the top of the Championship table after two rounds and we will head into Round 3 buoyed by another strong performance.
We will still be without captain Jack Owens, who continues his rehab programme with a minor knee injury.
This week’s game also comes a week early for long-term absentees Ste Tyrer and Shane Grady, who have undergone surgery in the off-season on respective shoulder and ankle injuries. Both players will be available for selection for the Monday Night Rugby League clash with Dewsbury Rams at the Tetley’s Stadium on 21 February (7.45pm kick-off), live on Premier Sports.
Livewire hooker Dec Gregory is still recovering from a hip flexor injury sustained during training, and will be available for selection within the next two weeks.
After missing the Workington game, Owen Farnworth and Ollie Brookes will face fitness checks through the week before a decision is made on their availability for Sunday’s game.
Finally, new signing Levy Nzoungou is entering the final stages of his return to play from a serious knee injury. He has recently returned to training and is continuing to build up his fitness with lead Strength & Conditioning coach Bob Beswick ahead of his return to action.
Not before time.👍👍
About time obviously they have started to read the forum, lets hope they sort the match day mess out next.
About time obviously they have started to read the forum, lets hope they sort the match day mess out next.
Maybe the non playing members of the squad could pull a few pints?
About time obviously they have started to read the forum, lets hope they sort the match day mess out next.
All they can do is ask the Council to address this issue as it is out of the club's hands. To be fair to the council last years attendances were about one third of Sunday's crowd. However one would think the club advised the council on how £1 ticket sales were going throughout the week. I guess food & drink orders take a few days to organise though. It has been a mess for a while though & needs to improve fast.
Nice comprehensive injury report, hopefully the Club will communicate more regularly on such matters, always get the impression they do so reactively to "noise" rather than proactively to inform! Still, nowt wrong with this report!
Spot on WV, a much needed update.
Seems they are doing it weekly now. Tyler and Grady ready to play against Dewsbury and Craven will be assessed later in the week.
Like this as well, some really informative facts.
STATS UPDATE
- The Vikings made 326 tackles in the Halifax game, compared to 289 against London and 293 against Workington.
- Aaron Brown made 46 tackles on Sunday, the most of any Widnes player.
- Aaron Brown, Matty Fozard and Olly Davies made 40% of all of Widnes’ tackles against Halifax (Aaron Brown – 46 – 14%, Matty Fozard – 42 – 13%, Olly Davies – 41 – 13%).
- The forwards took 97 of the 167 carries Widnes made on Sunday.
- Ryan Ince took the most carries in the game (23).
- Widnes started more sets (14) in the opposition half than Halifax (6).
- The Vikings had 42 sets, while the hosts had 36. Both teams made seven errors each.
Great stuff, I hope they keep this up.
Well done to whoever is responsible.
Pascal is very happy with these updates. I think the club see the passion from the fans and Pascal on this board. Passion and team work is needed to eventually get our goal of Super League. 💪👋👌
AFTER THE LEIGH GAME
This week sees us host Barrow Raiders in our third Monday night game in a row, live on Premier Sports. The Vikings come off the back of their first loss of the season at the Leigh Sports Village, going down 38-4 against the Centurions, ending our run in the Challenge Cup and 1895 Cup respectively.
All focus now turns back to the Championship and we will be looking to make it five wins from five in the league against an in-form Barrow side who have three wins from their first three outings.
Monday’s game at Leigh saw Lloyd Roby hobble off with a leg injury sustained in the first half and not return for the second half. He will be assessed by the medical staff through the week and a decision will be made on Friday whether he is available for selection for the upcoming game.
Ollie Brookes also came off during the game with a suspected hamstring injury and will more than likely miss the home fixture against Barrow. He will be checked over this week to determine the extent of his injury.
Kenny Baker will miss his first game of the season after picking up a one-match ban for dangerous contact in last week’s game away to Dewsbury.
Levy Nzoungou suffered a lower leg injury in training on Friday evening and will see a specialist in the coming days. He will not be available for selection this week.
Danny Craven and Jack Owens have been back running on the field with the medical staff and will be upping their running speeds during the week, leading into full speed. If their rehab programmes run as planned, they could both feature on Monday night. A call will be made on the pair later in the week.
Owen Farnworth has been on track with his recovery from a foot injury. He has returned to running on the field with the physio and may come into contention for Monday night depending on symptoms.
After following the concussion protocols set by the RFL, Ryan Ince will now be available to come into his wing spot after missing the defeat at Leigh due to a head knock against Dewsbury.
Liam Bent is also available for selection after overcoming a back problem during the past few weeks. He has been high speed running with the Strength and Conditioning team and is back to full fitness.
Dec Gregory, Joe Edge, Will Tilleke, and Jake Spedding are all fit and available for selection
So Ince back for Brooks and maybe Craven and Owen as well. Farnworth maybe for baker...
Worrying news that Levy has suffered a new injury and let us hope his trip to the specialist does not find a serious problem, though even a calf strain can mean a lengthy rehab.
I hope that for his sake as much as ours, he will be fit soon, as it must be demoralising suffering consecutive injuries. The good news is that even though we have a few on the physio's table, our squad still looks strong enough to trouble most teams in the competition.
The blank week between the Barrow and York games might be no bad thing. York away will be a potential four pointer with the playoffs in mind, and we need to be fielding a strong side.
@griffin1 Be lucky to get a handful of games out of him IMO, hope im wrong.
quick update on how the squad is looking following last night’s Betfred Championship defeat at home to Barrow Raiders…
Next up for us is a trip to the LNER Stadium to play York City Knights where we will be looking to get back to winning ways against a tough York side.
The loss to Leigh Centurions in the Challenge Cup last week gives us time to regroup, assess and re-focus with a weekend off before we head into our next Championship fixture on Sunday 20th March.
The main injury concern from last night was for veteran front-rower Shane Grady who hobbled off with a knee injury at the latter end of the game. Shane will have to be assessed by the medical team to determine the severity of his injury. A further update on his injury will be given in the week leading up to the York game.
The injury list should be smaller by the next Championship fixture as we will be boosted by the return of Kenny Baker, who was banned for the Barrow game, and Jack Owens who will return from a knee injury. Danny Craven will also be available for selection after overcoming a hamstring issue, and Owen Farnworth will return from a foot issue.
The four players will be back up for selection and the return of the quartet will come as a timely boost for the Vikings heading into a tough run of games.