Wane without a whole team

The Warriors’ injury crisis deepened during the 54-4 mauling at Castleford on Saturday, with three player suffering injuries which will almost certainly rule them out this week and three more doubtful.

Wane was already without seven players - and Sean O’Loughlin has flown Down Under to play for England this weekend.

Of the fresh injuries, the most severe appears to be to Ben Flower after he snapped an Achilles tendon.

The Welsh prop will need surgery and is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Anthony Gelling and George Williams suffered knee injuries in the opening half at Castleford.

They will both have scans tomorrow to determine the severity of the injuries but, whatever the outcome, they are unlikely to play this week.

It ruled Williams out of England’s Test against Samoa, with coach Wayne Bennett calling up Warrington’s Kevin Brown as a replacement. Gelling was also wanted by the Cook Islands.

Three other players suffered knocks which is threatening their involvement this Friday.

French full-back Morgan Escare had his leg in a brace yesterday and will also have a knee problem assessed. Prop Ryan Sutton and hooker Micky McIlorum rolled their ankles - the latter, of course, only recently returned from a nasty ankle break.

Of those three, Sutton appears the most likely to recover in time, with Wane checking up on their fitness again tomorrow.

He stressed they would not be making any pre-emptive excuses before Friday’s match.

“The team I’ll be putting out will be a fair team, and they’ll have a dig,” he said.

Warriors went to Castleford without Thomas Leuluai (broken jaw), Oliver Gildart (back), Tony Clubb (kidney), Sam Tomkins (broken foot), Dom Manfredi (knee), John Bateman (shoulder) and Jake Shorrocks (knee).

This is the second successive season Wane has had to manage a persistent injury crisis.

Earlier this year, he carried out a detailed review and found no trend among the cases.

Many of the injuries since then - such as those suffered by Gildart and Leuluai - have occurred during matches.

Prop Clubb’s kidney complaint was unrelated to any rugby league activity.