Wigan v Wakefield preview
Dom Manfredi returns to the Wigan Warriors squad for their Super 8s clash against Wakefield Trinity on Thursday night.
Manfredi has spent two years on the sidelines due to knee injuries. An initial ACL injury in August 2016 ruled him out for a year before a second injury set him back further.
The 24-year-old has navigated his way successfully through reserve team games and his resilience in the face of injury has been praised by the Warriors' head coach Shaun Wane.
"He's been in some tough places. He's a great kid and he's done some fantastic things for us," said Wane ahead of the game at the club's official website.
"Credit to him, he's turned up with a great attitude and now he's fit and healthy. I will make my decision on Dom on pure performance and doing the right thing in future games.
"If I feel it right to play Dom I will, and if I don't I won't."
Over the weekend centre Dan Sarginson suffered a family bereavement but has made himself available for selection.
"It's been a difficult week for us all, especially Dan. He's come straight back into training and trained really well today," said Wane.
"Mentally he's in a very tough place but I've been through it myself what he's going through and I couldn't wait to get back into work and into games and I think that he's of a similar opinion,"
"The lads are good with him, they are a very caring bunch and he means a lot to them. It's very, very sad what's happened but it's a bit more motivation for us as well."
"I spoke to him today [Wednesday] and I'll speak to him tomorrow. It really doesn't matter to me, it's just whatever he wants to do, and he's leaning towards wanting to play."
The Warriors forced their rivals St Helens to put the champagne on ice on Friday and condemned them to a second successive home defeat in the Super 8s.
At the same time, Chris Chester's team were busy stopping the in-form Giants at the John Smith's Stadium. Trinity scored seven tries on the night and their head coach has made two changes to his squad.
Chris Annakin returns following his late call up against the Giants and he's joined by Joe Arundel. The duo replace Max Jowitt and Anthony England respectively.
"We had to change a lot of things last week, we had to change the way that we play and we'll have to play a similar way this week against Wigan," Chester told the club's official website.
"They're going to want to challenge us through that middle third and they've got a big set of forwards so we're going to have to play pretty similarly. But, it [the win] has given everyone a real boost.
"I was expecting a win but I certainly wasn't expecting the score, to score 36 unanswered points against probably the in-form team in the competition is a very good result for us."
The head coach, who knows Wigan extremely well having played there, is expecting to be met by a formidable team at the DW Stadium.
"They are the best team in the comp," commented Chester.
"I said about four or five weeks ago that Saints were. But, the way that Wigan are playing now and the way that they are shifting the ball, with their personnel back including George Williams playing particularly well and Sean O'Loughlin back, they are the [best] side.
"It wouldn't surprise me if they go on and win the Grand Final. It would be great for (Shaun) Wane to leave on that note.
"It's going to be tough, we know that it's going to be a tough game but just hoping that the derby game has taken a lot out of Wigan."
Wigan Warriors' 19-man squad: John Bateman, Tony Clubb, Tom Davies, Morgan Escare, Ben Flower, Oliver Gildart, Joe Greenwood, Gabe Hamlin, Willie Isa, Tommy Leuluai, Dom Manfredi, Romain Navarrete, Sean O'Loughlin, Oliver Partington, Sam Powell, Dan Sarginson, Ryan Sutton, Sam Tomkins, George Williams.
Wakefield Trinity's 19-man squad: Chris Annakin, Tinirau Arona, Joe Arundel, Matty Ashurst, James Batchelor, Jordan Crowther, Scott Grix, Ryan Hampshire, Keegan Hirst, Justin Horo, Craig Huby, Tom Johnstone, Ben Jones-Bishop, Reece Lyne, Jacob Miller, Pauli Pauli, Tyler Randell, Bill Tupou, Kyle Wood.
