2016 The Year of the injury just keeps on giving and giving!

Tommy Leuluai has broken his jaw in two places after a clash of heads charging the ball up like a prop late on against the Scots.

Doubtful for the the start of the season. At least were used to this sort of thing now.

Of course he has.

Fan-f*cking-tastic!

Fecking great!

We'd better wrap Williams and Shorrocks in cotton wool until March

At least it's now and not the first match of next year. Could use Powell in the halved now Macca will be back

Shorrocks is nowhere near ready.

I would bring Dwyer in if possible and play Powell at 7.

I doubt it is a 6 month injury though, would have guessed 3 to 4.

Has to be Powell for me.

To bring in someone else is in is a smack in the face for him imo.

He's coming off a great season filling in at 9. He can do the same at 7

I take it NZ will be covering his salary until he returns to fitness.

Williams needs an op!

I believe Williams needs an op to cure the back trouble he suffered earlier this season.

No, his contract with Wigan began on 1st November.

Well why as he been allowed to play for England, should have had the op as soon as possible ready for next season.

Its one thing signing Sam Tomkins when we knew he had an injury, but paying out good money for someone who gets injured playing for another side is unfair.

I don't disagree with players being paid when they get injured as a result of playing or training with Wigan Warriors, but if it is on international duty, then the national body should pick up the cost of his wages until they returns to first team action. This sort of thing will end up in clubs withdrawing players, or scheduling them for surgeries when internationals are on.

Spot on. If delaying (and aggravating) any injury means he's not fit for the opening game, then the delay shouldn't happen. With a strict salary cap, we cant afford to be paying players to not play.

Perhaps the RFL should pay the salaries of those who are on international duty for the duration of a tournament.

Because he wanted to play for his country. He has only trained a handful of times since picking up his back injury but he has continued to put his hand up and play.

Our starting halves next season could be Powell and Shorrocks depending on the recovery time of GW and Tommy unless we move Sam to SO and Escare to FB.

What makes you think that Sam will be fit for the start of the season?

Exactly the reasons why I don't want to see any Wigan players anywhere near International Squads. We get some free advertising, and some kudos, but we also get to lose players to injury, at our cost, and also putting our season at risk.

Well, if all RL fans took that attitude...

We have that many injuries in the camp that it is difficult to say who will start in the halves. Just hoping we can start with a half decent pairing.

Most do, that's why our international game struggles for support. Not just with the above attitude (right or wrong) regrding playes, but with attendance too. Club before country has long been the RL supporters' ethos.

I must say that even though I go to most of the England internationals in this country I would much rather Wigan win. In fact there is no contest. A choice between Wigan beating Cronulla in February or England beating Australia in the 4 Nations, I don't even need to think about.

I'm totally the opposite tbh. I've seen Wigan win plenty but I'm still waiting to see England/GB beat the Aussies in a final (or knock out game).

It would be the pinnacle for me in terms of watching rugby league. I just hope it happens at some point and if it does then I'm at the game.

I'd love it if England were good enough to beat Aussie and I hope I'm there if it happens. Just reading this months RL World and I am reminded of how good the Aussies have been since 1982. I don't really know any Aussies personally (like I do Saints and Wire fans) and so just respect them as a great team really.

I never stop enjoying winning a Grand Final or Challenge Cup and I wouldn't swap any of them, especially this year's.

Me too, Wigan beating Cronulla would be brilliant but hardly unimaginable given that SL teams have won the World Club Challenge as recently as 2012 and we did it ourselves three times between 87 and 94. There would also be the usual suspects claiming Cronulla rested players, didn't take it seriously, were jet lagged etc. England/GB winning a tournament involving the aussies would be something else, it is nearly 50 years since that has happened and there would be no doubt that they tried their best and we won. It would be a rare time when all fans of SL clubs could stop being negative and celebrate together (either that or they would just say it indicates the declining standards of the sport as a whole

)