Burgess fuming with Chase social media post

The Castleford halfback had posted a video of his crunching tackle on Warriors winger Dom Manfredi in last August’s match, with the caption: “Season is just around the corner, getting excited.”

The tackle, while fair, caused a serious knee injury to Manfredi which ended his stellar season and could sideline him for the entire 2017 campaign.

His Wigan team-mate Joe Burgess took aim at Chase on Twitter.

“Around the corner when it seriously injures a player, p****,” he wrote, in a post seen by scores of fans.

Manfredi himself joined in.

“Tough guy ain’t he, giving it big ‘uns over giving someone a 12 month injury,” he tweeted.

But Chase, a former England international, insisted he had not intended to glorify Manfredi’s injury.

He removed the offending Instagram post and replaced it with an apology.

“I was just excited about the season coming up,” he explained.

“No way would I celebrate someone getting hurt the way he did, sorry to Dom Manfredi and everyone else who got offended.

“At the end of the day my point was that I was really excited about ripping in - not hurting anyone.”

Wigan’s players and staff returned to England yesterday following a week-long camp in France which culminated with a friendly win against Catalans on Saturday.

Burgess scored two tries in a half-hour stint as a strong Warriors line-up held on to a 26-22 win.

“I felt very comfortable, I’m just pretty gutted I didn’t do more than 30 minutes,” Burgess told Wigan’s own TV website. His pre-season was disrupted by a hip problem but he is set to be fit for the start of the year.

Coach Shaun Wane says he was pleased with the contributions made by the younger fringe players, many of whom had been in the side beaten 50-10 by Leigh a week earlier.

Wigan have no more friendlies before the new season starts at Salford on February 11. They host NRL champions Cronulla the following weekend in the World Club Challenge.