Team coped manfully with injuries, says Cullen
12:20pm Friday 16th May 2008
PAUL Cullen was pleased with the way his team coped with the loss of players before and during Saturday's Challenge Cup tie at St Helens.
Asked how big a blow the long-term injuries to Stuart Reardon and Paul Johnson were to the rest of the team, Cullen said: "It was sickening during the game.
"I thought the team coped manfully with not only the loss of Martin Gleeson in the warm-up or the sight of him being on the drip when we got in the dressing room but to lose Stuart Reardon.
"The irony isn't funny, it's exactly the same as Chris Bridge on exactly the same field within five minutes and he's gone down with no-one near him.
"The only difference is that Stuart Reardon has done his right Achilles and Chris Bridge did his left.
"Then we lost Paul Johnson, who in my opinion was man of the match up until the 65th minute when his knee got blown out.
"He had no preparation to play right centre because Martin Gleeson had trained very well during the week.
"He was taken very badly ill on Friday night. We were unaware of it apart from the doctor himself, who Martin had spoken to just before the game.
"Martin had travelled down early and gone to St Helens to see the doctor. We expected Martin to be playing right centre so it was a late reshuffle and Paul Johnson coped admirably."
Reardon and Steve Pickersgill, who had previously been ruled out for the rest of the season because of injury, are out of contract at the end of the year.
But Cullen says they have not been ruled out of contract extensions, with decisions about new deals to be made later in the season.
Asked whether they were still under consideration, the Wolves boss said: "Absolutely.
"This week is not the time to be thinking about the long-term prospects of long-term injured players.
"The priority was to get back from St Helens in the best state of health we possibly could, physically and mentally, after an exhaustive effort and gear ourselves for what is now the next biggest game of the season - Wigan at the JJB."