Mike Cooper set for first Super League minutes since horrific knee injury as Matt Peet delivers team news

Saturday’s fixture will mark 35-year-old Cooper’s return to the Super League for the first time since suffering a horrific knee injury in last year’s Good Friday victory over St Helens at the DW Stadium.

The England international prop made his return to the field for the club’s reserves in the 66-10 win over Huddersfield Giants, alongside first pre-season minutes for wingers Abbas Miski and Liam Marshall.

The trio are expected to feature at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle for the opening fixture for the reigning champions, having all been named in Peet’s 21-man squad.

Miski, 28, suffered an MCL injury during the 10-2 Grand Final triumph over Catalans Dragons and later underwent a knee clean-up during the off-season.

Having all featured in the 40-0 pre-season win over Hull FC, Kruise Leeming, Luke Thompson and Adam Keighran are also expected to make their official debuts against Castleford.

“Mike Cooper will play off the bench,” Peet confirmed.

“He was excellent for the reserves, I actually thought that about all our senior boys.

“I guess it’s not the ideal game for some of them to come back, but a thank you to Wigan Rugby Union for hosting us.

“It was important that firstly we had another week out from Hull to recover, but then we had that game.

“I thought Tiaki [Chan] was excellent, I was really impressed by all the senior players.

“I just thought that the attitude they showed on that day, the two wingers in Liam Marshall and Abbas Miski, the last game they played was at Old Trafford then they played in that game.

"I thought it said a lot about them as people.”

Meanwhile, rising prop Sam Eseh suffered an injury in the win over Huddersfield, having been one of nine different try-scorers in the friendly.

“He’s got a bad hamstring injury, we’re probably looking around the 12 weeks,” Peet confirmed.

“All we can do is support him now. It’s disappointing for him, similar to Sam Walters, they’ve both worked so hard throughout this pre-season and to suffer a setback early on, it’s our job now to support them through that, team-mates and staff alike.”