Apparently he's going to be fit and ready to play in the next two weeks.

At the moment our two current wingers are delivering the goods. Burgess has recovered from a shaky start and Manfredi is playing out of his skin. That poses a real question of what happens to Josh when he returns?

Josh has been out of sorts recently but he's still tied to a long term deal and is realistically a dead certain to start next season alongside Manfredi. On top of that he's a top draw winger on his day (not seen it in a while though).

Does the fact that he's an excellent long term option override the short term benefits of keeping Burgess in the side?

Personally I hope the competition for places gives Charnley the fire he needs to regain form. On his day I believe he's a top 3 SL winger. I'd put him on loan at Workington for a couple of games and then have him straight back in over Joe. I do like Burgess but the fact he's not here next season weighs against him imo.

Either way if all three are under immense pressure to perform it can only be good for Wigan.

He can't play right now that's for sure. Manfredi looks top quality - what will he be like with some regular game time?

Charnley is going to have his work cut out to get his place back.
Burgess and Manfredi are scoring tries regularly and playing very well too.
When Lockers returns Shaun Wane will have to "rotate" his pack to accomodate him.
When Josh returns maybe SW will do the same with his backs.

Manfredi and Burgess are both undroppable right now IMO.

competition will do all of them good & keep them on their toes, but there has to be some rotation or one or the other or all will either be completely knackered or so out of touch it'll be embarrassing. Can't keep just farming them out to Cumbria

Could Josh play left centre? Pretty sure he's played in the centres before. Sarge looked useful in attack last night, but only that, and in defence - whoaa!

Sarge's defence last night was still ten times better than Charnley's has been.

Have you seen Josh's defence? I'd leave Sarge there!
Sarginson's competition will come from Thornley when he returns.

Sarge missed a couple of important ones last night but I've no concerns over him long term. He just had an off day - can see him having a big game next week.

He definitely shouldn't play next week. But I'm assuming that Wane will give either Budgie or Dom a rest against Hull KR at home.

Playing Josh at centre instead of Sarge is one of the worst ideas I've EVER heard.

He's lost his place.

He'll need an injury or a loss of form to get back in. As and when he does he needs to play as Josh Charnley can and not serve up the half hearted displays that he has at times these past couple if years.

If he does that he'll be our best winger and the other two are brilliant so that's scary.

Is that not almost the same situation? We are dropping a guy who is a long term Wigan player who in 2016 will probably be a starter. Sarginson is also at a key development stage of his career.

No matter how hard we try to ignore it, the Elephant in the room is that Burgess is leaving us. There are very good players potentially being dropped to accommodate him and he has less than 6 months left with us.

Can we risk alienating Charnley or Sarginson?

Good point why risk alienating Charnley or anyone else and play a guy who has already decided he is off at the end of the season.............may be harsh but that's life i guess

On reflection, yep. Josh is crap in defence.

You're not alienating anyone.

The culture at Wigan is that you have to earn your place (albeit some players have been handed a place due to a lack of recruitment).

It goes against everything that has been built up at the club to put Charnley straight back in to the team when he's fit. He has to win his spot back.

Next season is next season. We've got three trophies still to play for this year and I don't see the point in keep looking towards tomorrow.

Manfredi and Burgess have been our best wingers this year and deserve their places on merit. By keep playing them Charnley needs to fight for his place and a desperate to impress Charnley can only be good for Wigan.

To drop Burgess because he won't be here next year will get no reaction from Charnley.

I agree and I don't think charnley could of done those passes back on the inside that joe did, for a winger he has very good hands

He's done it time and again hasn't he and that link up with Faz is excellent.

It's sad to see him go but whilst we've still got him let's use him is my opinion. Somebody pointed out earlier in the week that we didn't just drop Sam Tomkins when we knew he was going so why do it with Burgess. He's clearly not as important as Sam was but he's a very good player in his own right.

He's our best winger for me, just because he's leaving doesn't mean we should drop him, can't believe people are saying this, we drop = weaker back line IMO

I personally think that on form Charnley is more dangerous than Burgess as he's got a swerve/step.

Burgess is excellent in that Richards role where it goes wide quickly and he opens his stride and pulls away but how often have you seen him jink round a player? Charnley can do both but might not have the hands of Burgess (see last nights pass to Faz).

The only issue is Charnley hasn't shown his top form in a LONG time.

IMO Manfredi this season is playing better than Budgie last season, once Josh returns we should be switching Dom to the left. Why help develop Budgie to benefit the Roosters

I can't agree.

It's not about developing Burgess. He's a good player now and we've got trophies to play for now. His form is superb and is far better then anything Charnley has produced for a long while.

2016 will take care of itself but 2015 is here and now.

Josh to centre and sarg to full back for me!!

But, thankfully, only Grimmy agrees with you.

It's nice to have the option I suppose. Hampshire has been superb so far and we'll have to take the rough with the smooth in regards to the high kicks because what he'll being in other areas far outweighs his frailties.

We've got options all over the place now which is great to see.