MARK Percival, Sione Mata’utia and Will Hopoate will not play in Saints’ final regular season game on Saturday – but coach Kristian Woolf remains confident that they will feature in the semi-final in a fortnight’s time.

Although England centre Percival has not played since bruising a knee bone in the win at Warrington in May, Woolf does not think that will be an issue provided he is passed fit to play.

Mata'utia has a foot injury after being trodden on at Hull FC in mid-August, while Hopoate has a hamstring issue that has kept him out for the last two games.

All three will have to “jump through hoops” to make themselves available but Woolf is confident that the training methods that can simulate match day closely will get all up to the mark should they be fit.

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Woolf said: “We are very confident on those three guys being available but we can’t sit here and say that they are all 100 per cent as there are a lot of little hoops that they are going to have to jump through before they are available.

“What we have done in the last three to four weeks with all of those guys is make sure we tick every box to make sure we put them in a position where they are going to be doing full training next week with a view to making them available for a semi final. We are very confident will all three that they are going to be in that position.

“I know that is going to mean – particularly for Percy as he has not played for a longer period – that they are going to go into that game without a lot of football under their belt.

“But they are three of our best players with a lot of experience at Super League, NRL and international level.

“They are quality players and class players – guys I know and trust that can come into a team, whether they have been playing or not, and do an exceptional job for us.”

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Woolf’s confidence stems from the modern training systems they have in place – ones that came into their own when the team came back from the lengthy Covid lockdown break in 2020 when the players had had minimal contact.

“The way we train and the things we do in training can put them in a position that simulates a game very closely,” he said.

“We use a lot of GPS data these days and tells you that you can simulate it really closely.

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“I will always reflect back to something I learned from the Covid period – we had 15 weeks of not training together, and three weeks of training together before we played our first game against Catalans and that was one of our best performances that year.

“We backed that up the following week with a great performance against Leeds at Headingley.

“That was with a three-week preparation.

“If we can reflect on that, that gives me confidence that we can get those three guys into a really good position to not just play to make a great impact as well.

“To be specific with Perc, he is a unique player and an exceptional player and I have no doubt whatsoever that he can come in and have a positive influence despite not having played for a number of weeks.”