If Hewitt is ever going to get a game for the first team, surely it'll be this weekend against York.

From the look of it Hewitt hasn't been willing to swear Omerta-style loyalty to the Godfather and has paid the price.

Doubt we'll see him again. Alive.

In 5 weeks time we play the Pie Eaters so can't see him playing in that

Gary Wheeler in disguise

Given that Walsh hasn't even made five full games back without that joint blowing up - you have to wonder whether his career is in jeopardy. He suffered a very bad injury. Players sometimes don't come back from such. Or if they do - not what they once were.

He's had the best surgery and physio possible. And I'm sure the medical staff will have worked countless hours with Walsh to strengthen the surrounding tissues.

If he was declared fit to play complications were unlikely. Is this the first occasion the joint has failed? After all, Walsh seemed to be gearing up for a much earlier start to the season and then was pushed back.

I can't remember whether it was the same injury which caused him to bump the schedule back. If it was ... and it's just failed again the future doesn't seem great.

Fingers crossed.

It was the plates in his leg that caused the delay. They were uncomfortable and so he had them removed. The ankle was operated on prior to Christmas. He came back early from Oz for the op. Apparently this was a clean out as once again it was feeling uncomfortable. From what someone has said to me on Twitter it sounds more like a psychological problem than anything else as there was nothing to clean out. He just felt uncomfortable on it.

So what did the operation consist of then if there was nothing needed doing? You never fail to amaze me with the complete and utter tripe you post.

I know it's too early to judge but without the confidence to tackle or be tackled he's going to struggle. At the moment it's a case of him getting rid of the ball as any opposition approach and keeping out of the way on the wing in defence.

I don't agree. He's taken quite a few knocks on it already and can't be accused of avoiding collisions. Yes he's defending out on the wing at times but to suggest he is getting rid of the ball as quick as he can is ridiculous.

Rogues are you the Grim Reaper?

You are certainly always reliable for delivering bad news for any other club than Wigan

Another bad signing

Because obviously Brown and McManus could predict that he was going to suffer a serious injury.

Really??

In terms of his fitness that wasn't the only injury he suffered last season. He was out for a few weeks before that injury.

Saints wouldn't have risked him if they didn't think he was a hundred percent. But an injury can come through surgery/rehab and then full training - only to blow up on match-day. No amount of stress testing and training can fully simulate the rigours of professional SL.

One only need consider the countless occasions Paul Sculthorpe or Ellery Hanley returned after serious groin injuries only to fall apart before they'd played a handful of games.

They too would have sailed through the same process of post-operative evaluation, full training etc.

I'm not going to rule out some kind of psychological rather than physiological explanation because it's now widely recognised that traumatic injuries such as the one Walsh suffered often leave behind mental scar tissue. At the very least one requires time to feel confident in the integrity of the repair.

I don't want to sound like I'm wishing it on him but I'd prefer to be dealing with some kind of psychological side-effect which we can attempt to treat rather than a serious physiological complication. From what I've seen in collision sports of all descriptions over the years, as the number of "corrective surgeries" rises incrementally, the chance that the player's career is effectively over goes up exponentially.