6-8 weeks isn't too bad. We'd be looking at early to mid August and him having around 8 games to get back up to speed ahead of the play offs. It feels like this injury has been coming with all the talk of him managing something and as soon as he does play flat out he's pulled up. Fair play to him managing to get through a full game with an injury like that and to play as well as he did. How brave the lad is doesn't get anywhere near enough attention.

6 - 8 weeks from today, or from the CC final? If it's the latter, then we're almost 2 weeks in & a break next week.

Sam Eseh has gone to Leeds on loan.

That will do wonders for his development.........

Not the most positive of environments to go in to but hopefully he'll get plenty of minutes. Avoiding head injuries may be the big worry for him. Unbelievable that they have 7 players missing with concussion this weekend

Stuff like Smith leaving and the seemingly positive changes at Hull FC, really show what a farce the current fixture format is.

We've played Cas three times and not played either of the above. We'll now probably have to face better versions of both Hull and Leeds (home and away), where others have played them and racked up decent points differences.

Don't get me wrong- Team's switch coaches and sign new guys, but it's mostly after a good run of games. We're half way through the season and we've not played them.

Swings and roundabouts.

You were fortunate to play an in-form Warrington away who made more changes than Wigan and were more weakened and you also played Leigh A when they had a lot of injuries.

We still have to play Leigh away twice when they are more likelt to have a much better team. You were also very fortunate with your fixture the week after the CC Final.

Each team gets good and bad luck.

I'm not sure those are the same.

You often hear fans saying "they'll be a different team to the one we played earlier in the year" etc. Within that traditional reasoning, everyone knows that teams certainly get lucky and can play against a side with injuries, a lame duck coach, out of form etc.

The big difference here however is - We haven't played Leeds or Hull once. We're not 5 or 6 games into the season either, we're pretty much half way through.

This also ain't a "the world's against Wigan" type of thing either. We probably won the LLS shield last year based off two big wins Vs Wakey at the start of the season.

Doesn't make it right however and kinda makes a mockery of a fair comp too.

It is daft I'll give you that. We haven't played Warrington in the league yet but have played Leeds 3 times (inc CC)

I noticed that they'd said Leeds had reviewed the game and then stood people down. That certainly seems very different to all the other clubs and you'd have to feel is linked to the Stevie Ward case as you say. It sends shudders down the spine in many ways if that is a look in to the future. The on field decisions and the disciplinary get plenty of heat currently but if teams start having to review games and stand multiple players down, you're going to be left with such a poor product. Nobody wants to watch second string teams playing each other. The end result of something like this would means young kids, who are likely not ready for it, having to play first team rugby and also injured players being rushed back or pushed through games.

I'm not concerned at all with when we played the likes of Cas, Leeds and Hull and the form they were in at the time or may be in come a couple of months time but I am concerned with how the ridiculous fixture list has been allowed to happen. We've played Cas 3 times and not played Leeds or Hull yet and all I hear on Rugby League podcasts is that loop fixtures are to blame. Loop fixtures aren't to blame for us playing one side 3 times already and no games against a couple of sides. If we take Cas as our example of a team we have a loop fixture against, we should've played them early in the season, in the middle of the season and then one towards the end. We don't have a loop fixture against Leeds, so we should've played on of our fixtures against them in the first half of the season and one in the second half. It all seems quite straightforward but it's been an absolute mess.

We don’t help the fixture format by saying don’t give us any home fixtures in April/May as we are having our pitch relayed!

It’s mid May to mid June, so while that point stands, it doesn’t explain why we’ve had so few home games from Feb to Mid May and why we’ve had to play teams multiple times. It’s not just Wigan either, teams across the league haven’t played each other yet.