Adrian Lam "devastated" as Jai Field ruled out for five months

The Australian, signed in the off-season from Parramatta, limped out of his debut against Leigh on Friday with a hamstring injury. He hyper-extended his leg trying to collect a loose ball and Lam suspected the injury would keep him out for between four to six weeks.

But further checks have confirmed he will face up to five months on the sidelines.

Coach Lam said: "It's worst case scenario, it looks like he's torn the belly of the hamstring and tendons involved. It's a really bad injury, maybe five months, it's not good at all and as a club we're devastated for him, for his family.

"We'll rally around him to make sure he's okay because it's a difficult time for him, being away from his family, we've had the Covid period and then he gets a chance to play rugby and that happened.

"It was unfortunate too because had he picked the ball up cleanly, all of Super League will have seen how quick he can be.

"We're going to miss that but we'll have him back as soon as we can."

Lam also confirmed Jackson Hastings - left out last week following a late return to the UK - is likely to come back into the mix to face Wakefield on Thursday night. But centre Oliver Gildart is unlikely to return, as he needs another week or two to recover from a groin injury while Dom Manfredi (broken thumb) is still out and Liam Marshall is sidelined until May or June.

It leaves his backline looking even more depleted than last week.

Youngsters James O'Donnell and Sam Halsall are likely to come into the selection mix, or Lam may pick a forward out of position but he says Chris Hankinson has not been recalled from his loan spell at London but the option may be discuss.

"Chris is based and living down in London at the moment," he said. "It's something that we'll (look at) as a club in the next week or two but haven't as of yet. It's something we need to address."

Bevan French will also be available from Thursday and Lam confirmed he will travel with the team to St Helens for the televised game with Trinity (kick-off 6pm), but given he won't have trained with his teammates before then, his selection would seem unlikely.

One positive was that no Wigan players were cited by the RFL's match review panel.