No rushing back of our injured players – Betts

WIDNES will not be taking any risks with injured players at this stage of their Betfred Super League campaign.

That is the message from head coach Denis Betts as his side prepare to take on Huddersfield Giants at the Select Security Stadium tomorrow night.

Betts admitted that in-form centre Krisnan Inu could have played at a push against Wigan last Friday despite suffering from illness.

Similarly, the Vikings will only throw influential hooker Lloyd White back into the fray when they are happy he has fully recovered from a calf injury.

Betts said: “We rotated our squad a little bit on the weekend. We went into a game against the most physical team in the competition with one training session on half a pitch after a physical game four days before. It’s not a level playing field at times.

“We’ve fallen into the trap a couple of times in recent years of rushing players back when they haven’t been 100 per cent. If it had been later in the year and a semi-final or something, Krisnan would probably have pulled his boots on, taken some medicine and got on with it.

“But it’s early in the year, it was a short turnaround and he’d spent three days in bed.

“We could have dragged him out of bed, stuck him on the field, gave him some hot lemon and let him go. But the smart thing to do was to make sure he’s fit and healthy and to prevent any recurring problems.

“And there’s no need to rush Lloyd back now. We want to get him fully right so when he comes back into the side he can stay there and not fall out from a recurring injury. We’re just working him to a point where he’s ready to go for a number of weeks.”

White has again been left out of the Vikings’ 19-man squad this week but Inu is back in harness to face the Giants.

Second-rower Chris Dean is set to return after a knock and hooker Jordan Johnstone is in contention after spending a month on loan at London Broncos.

Prop Jay Chapelhow is back in the 19 and Australian forward Chris Houston, one of the Vikings’ best performers in the first three games of the season, returns having completed a two game suspension. Ted Chapelhow, Alex Gerrard, Macgraff Leuluai and Danny Walker drop out. ● Widnes Vikings: (from) Burke, Cahill, Chamberlain, J Chapelhow, Craven, Dean, Gilmore, Hanbury, Heremaia, Houston, Inu, Johnstone, Marsh, Mellor, Olbison, Runciman, W Albert, Whitley, Wilde.