Id say having lomax, percy, burns, walsh, vea Defo out and wello, Roby and greenwood serious doubts pretty negative.

We've already got flash putting his hand up to play when he shouldn't be playing as well.

Two points from Easter would be good Imo now.

Not a keyboard warrior at all. I just cannot understand people like you who are given an explanation by the club and then simply ignore it and make up your own version of events.

They've said he'll be back by 2nd week in April, it's now 31st of March and you're saying he'll never play for us again.

Get a grip.

Going to have to have quite a few Guinness before this one judging by the possible XIII's been put on here!

Just have to get behind em and if something doesn't come off don't get on their backs about it.

COYS

You should try reading more carefully before throwing around personal insults. I did not say Walsh will never play for us again. I said I was getting more concerned with every delayed return.

As for the club's statements, I'm touched that you see them as commandments written on tablets of stone. Clubs get things wrong; they indulge in wishful thinking; they are tripped up by developments beyond their control; and they occasionally deliberately mislead for a variety of motives. The club also said Walsh would be returning several weeks ago. That was wrong. I think it's not unreasonable to be concerned that they may be wrong again.

Burns and Walsh will be back, so whilst it's incredibly frustrating were without them, I don't think we need to be looking to move anyone in - it's only Lomax we could replace.

Vidot would be a great move imo, especially if we think Makinson is the long term fullback/ second choice - I'd prefer to keep him as a specialist winger, but if we can't find a quality fullback, vidot would be very good. Surely a subsidised deal until the end of the year would surely work?

They shave explained what happened!! What they announced at the time was correct but they then he unforeseen setbacks. What's difficult about that?

Is it time to start considering the possibilty that Lomax's knees arnt up to it? yet another season out. Wouldnt be surprised if his insurers werent getting a bit tetchy.

You're right. I for one am surprised that on a 4 page thread nobody has yet thought to discuss the possibility of Lomax having a career-threatening injury.

I'm sure people said that about Tommy Martyn?
Let's also not forget the knee problems Sean long had?

Only time will tell with Johnny, for me our biggest problem could be not planning ahead, with Wellens possibly hanging them up this autumn who plays full back next year if Lomax gets injured again

Rock & a hard place springs to mind on that one for Saints. Got to stick by the lad for now though

Nothing. One of us accepts that the club has in the past released statements about Walsh's return which have proved inaccurate. One of us doesn't. One of us, as a result, exercises reasonable doubt about the accuracy of future statements. The other acts like a fly banging against a window, being equally surprised every time it gets cracked on the head.

Are you being deliberately obtuse!? They have explained why those statements turned out to be inaccurate you muppet!!

Superb.

I'm with you in your growing skepticism (even if I spell it differently). I think Saints have now made three announcements on his return, two of which have proven inaccurate for whatever reason. It would have been better had they said nothing other than 'he's making progress' given that we were all prepared at the end of last season for him to be out for some of this season too.

As for Lomax ... it would be a real shame if his dodgy knees meant the end of his rugby career, especially given the courage he showed after his head injury as a youngster. But on both occasions of his injury to this knee it just gave way under him without any challenge so clearly there is a real problem there, whatever it is. Either way the club will be making back up plans I'm sure.

Makinson looks good at fullback and it was his position of preference. It's easier to bring in a young back on the wing first than at fullback, and we won't be able to find anyone externally at this stage of the season I shouldn't think anyway. Given that Wello has already suffered an injury I'm not sure we will be able to rely upon him to cover as we did last season. I'm not sure we should either; we should be seeking to move on from him as he won't be on the field next year anyway.

I think, for the second time on this thread, you haven't discerned the meaning of my words. We'll leave it there. You should perhaps be a bit slower to throw around personal insults when all someone is doing is offering a perfectly reasonable alternative view to your own.

I'm thinking some people will believe what they want to believe just because when it comes to Walsh, regardless of empircal evidence is put in front of them.

Walshs current return date is the second week in April. Yes, he might fall in the shower tomorrow and re-break it leading to another 6 months out. That doesn't make the first statement any less true, it just means new circumstances. I'm not sure why that's hard to follow...

What do we as fans want? Club statements that read more akin to legal papers?

I think there's an issue of cause and causality here.

As YG (and myself) are aware, the information saints have previously put out about Walsh was true at the time, there's a possibility that he falls tomorrow, re breaks it and doesn't play again. However, that's somewhat unlikely, certainly no more likely than any other player. That doesn't mean that Saints were wrong when they said he could make the start of the season, and the invalidity of that statement is no basis to assume of further false statements by saints.