MARK Percival is back in pre-season training and looking fit and strong after a tough 2020.

The England centre suffered shoulder and then hamstring injuries that wrecked his season.

He missed a good chunk of the start after coming off worse from a tackle on tackle on Warrington’s Ben Murdoch-Masila.

And then after lockdown he was niggled by a hamstring that finished his season.

But Woolf has been impressed by his approach in the time out and on his return to training.

Woolf said: “It was a tough year for Mark Percival.

“He essentially played two-and-a-half games if you add up his game time up, over three or four attempts.

“It was a frustrating year and a difficult one.

“He went through a lot of different things.

“I can’t give him enough wraps as to how he has handled himself and how professional he has been.

“He has worked really hard on his shoulder and his hamstring.

“Watching him train at the moment and the way he moves, he is a real credit to himself.

“He is doing all those things really well and has come back in really good spirits and is hungry for the season ahead.

“I’d expect him to kick on from where he was at the start of last year when he was one of our best players.

“He needs a bit of luck with his body, obviously, but he has done a lot of the hard work to take much of the luck element out of it as well.”

In his absence last term Jack Welsby and Josh Simm really grabbed their chances and that too will be a bonus for this year going forward.

Woolf explained: “It is always a positive when you get injuries that young blokes will step up and take those spots.

“Young blokes bring a real enthusiasm and a hunger to be first graders – that is exactly what we have seen out of Jack Welsby and Josh Simm.

“What that does for us this year is put us in a much stronger position than we were 12 months ago- both in competition for spots wise and also in terms of placing people in positions when we do have injuries.

“You need that in certain times of the year.”