St Helens will travel to face Leigh Leopards on Friday night knowing they need to win to keep their top four hopes alive, though both teams will be without some key players.

It’s actually St Helens who are in a healthier state, something that can’t have been said much across the past 18 months, with a torrid injury run last year almost costing the club top six.

Meanwhile this year, it’s not been anywhere near as bad but injuries have still impacted them and they still have players missing for this final play-off push.

As for Leigh, they started the season plagued by injuries but they steadied the ship and that unsurprisingly coincided with a run of form where they looked to be genuine top two contenders.

That’s fallen off slightly as injuries reoccurred but the Leopards know that a win over play-off rivals St Helens will guarantee them a top four finish and a home play-off game.

With the game being so significant, we’ve taken a look at some early team news.

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Leigh Leopards team news

The major blow from their win over Warrington Wolves was the fact that Tesi Niu failed his HIA meaning the Leopards will be without the centre this week and he’s one of three players confirmed to be out for the match, though the others are far longer term.

Those long-termers are David Armstrong (ACL) and Louis Brogan (knee) with star full-back Armstrong not expected to be back until the early rounds of 2026.

As for this week, Adrian Lam will have decisions to make on two of his forward. Last week he confirmed that all of Owen Trout, Joe Ofahengaue and Ethan O’Neill were possibilities, and Trout did play from the bench.

He had conceded that the Englishman was the likeliest of the trio to play but after another week’s recovery, Ofahengaue and O’Neill (both hamstrings) could return.

St Helens team news

St Helens will actually welcome back two key players with George Delaney (suspended) and Morgan Knowles (HIA) in line to return, and there could be others.

Lewis Murphy (thigh) is done for the year whilst Jake Wingfield (ankle) is in race to be fit for the later play-off games, whilst Owen Dagnall (hamstring) could return a bit earlier.

As for those who may return this week, Noah Stephens (thumb) and Shane Wright (pec) were both revealed by Paul Wellens to be close to a return.