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Warrington forward suffers devastating injury blow as grim prognosis delivered Warrington forward Luke Thomas has ruptured his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and faces a long stint on the sidelines in a devastating injury blow, Wolves boss Sam Burgess has confirmed. Thomas suffered the same injury, but to his other knee, ahead of the 2024 campaign during a pre-season friendly against Leigh Leopards. This time around, the 23-year-old’s blow came last weekend in victory at Hull FC, where he was forced off. And the prognosis is a grim one, with the one-time Wales international set to miss what remains of this season as well as the majority of 2027. Warrington forward Luke Thomas suffers devastating injury blow as grim prognosis delivered This weekend sees Warrington travel to fourth-placed Wakefield Trinity, with anything but a defeat mathematically cementing at least a third-place finish this term. In Friday morning’s pre-match press conference, head coach Burgess explained: “Unfortunately, Luke Thomas has ruptured his ACL. “That’s very unfortunate. It’s on his other leg as well (compared to the ACL he suffered in 2024). We’ll deal with that. “It’s the worst bit of news to get as a player. He’s here today. He’s a great lad and very resilient. “He’s not complaining too much, he’ll have to get on with it. Over the next few months, there might be a couple of days where he’s a bit frustrated. “But he’s been here before and he’ll be alright.” Injury news ahead of Wakefield There was plenty of other injury news out of the Wire camp ahead of Saturday evening’s clash at Belle Vue, with Burgess making six changes to his 21-man squad. Burgess detailed: “Joe (Philbin) has reaggravated that niggle that he had, we’re aiming for (him to be back) week one of finals (play-offs). “Jordy Crowther has a shoulder injury on his collarbone, and there’s a slight fracture in there as well. I think he might have done that the week before (against Huddersfield Giants). “He’s pretty tough, Jordy, so it’s a bit of a week-to-week management. “Josh Smith will come in for Arron Lindop in a straight swap. He’s been ready to play for a while, and he had a good dig in the reserves semi-finals on the weekend. That’ll be good to see him back in the team. “It’s nice to have Luke Yates back. He’ll bring something to the group, which is good. “He won’t start the game, we’ll ease him back in. He’s a really valuable part of the team. Like George (Williams), with his leadership and stuff, Yatesy is equally as important. “Not having him on the field for a number of weeks, you can feel that. It’s nice having him back, you can notice that he’s back in the team. “It might take him two or three weeks before we see him get anywhere near, but it’s back to having him back available for selection.” Latest on young duo Rounding the injury news off, Burgess provided an update on young pair Charlie McKler and Cai Taylor-Wray. Both have been named in his 21, but Taylor-Wray definitely won’t play – and McKler may have to wait just a bit longer for his first-team debut. The Wire boss said: “Charlie is a possibility (to play). “If he doesn’t play this week, he’ll play the following week (at home against Toulouse). “Everyone is desperate to see him play first-team, me included. I know he’s ready to play and when he does, he’ll be ready to go. “Cai is not playing. He’s not quite there. I put him in the 21-man squad just really so that if anything went wrong, I could have used him. “Hopefully we’ll see him next week. He’s just ticking along, he didn’t play in the reserves (last weekend), we felt he needed time off feet and working hard in rehabilitation. Hopefully we’ll see him next week.”