SAINTS will be without second row Joe Batchelor for a couple of weeks after he picked up a tight hamstring during the final session ahead of Friday night’s game against Castleford.

He joins fellow second row Curtis Sironen and wing Tommy Makinson on the sidelines – also with hamstring issues of varying degrees.

In his place James Bell moved to second row and impressed, especially in defence where his low, hard tackling technique halting many a Cas ball carrier.

Wellens said: “Joe is probably going to be missing for a couple of weeks.

“He trained yesterday at captain’s run with a view to playing and just felt a bit tight in his hamstring, which is disappointing obviously for him and for us.

“He's an influential player, he'll get scanned on that, we hope it's not too serious but we obviously need some more information there.

“I always challenge the players that you deal with adversity when you lose players, someone needs to step in and in James Bell, you have someone who comes in and wherever he plays gives you his best effort, week on week.

“I was delighted to see him step into that role and play as well as he will.”

The two players – Sione Mata’utia and Konrad Hurrell – who went off for HIAs both returned to the action having passed – which means they will be available for the trip to Warrington next week.

“They have all come through.

“We have doctors on the sideline, particularly when there's not Sky game, and they have their own monitor to assess things and there's a couple of instances there where they felt they need to bring payers from the field to get them checked out.

“Morgan Knowles covered in the back row for Sione Mata’utia and then obviously did the same when Konrad Hurrell got checked out but it pleasing for us that they have both come through OK and were able to return to the field,” Wellens said.