Crusaders lose Witt for rest of season

Crusaders have suffered a second half-back blow with the news that the influential Michael Witt will miss the rest of the season.

The Wrexham club are already without Jarrod Sammut for another six weeks and have now lost Witt with knee ligament damage. The loss of the pair means that Rhys Hanbury is likely to be at scrum-half again at Leeds tomorrow.

Chaz I'Anson's season has also been ended by a knee injury – the Hull KR stand-off needs reconstruction after doing the damage playing on loan at Widnes.

Garreth Carvell makes his comeback from his broken leg earlier than expected for Warrington at Bradford this evening.

The Wolves will also have their England trio of Adrian Morley, Chris Bridge and Ben Westwood available again and also include Richard Mathers, who announced this week that he is leaving at the end of the season.

In today's other game, Julien Rinaldi makes his Wakefield debut at his old club, Catalan Dragons. The Dragons have lost a club record nine on the trot, but look considerably stronger for the return of Thomas Bosc, Clint Greenshield and Dimitri Pelo.

Wakefield have won only one in ten and their coach, John Kear, who has been linked with the Catalans' vacancy for next season, said that they took "ten steps backwards" in their thrashing by Wigan last week. Wigan captain Sean O'Loughlin's quad muscle injury will keep him out of tomorrow's derby against St Helens.

Elsewhere, Salford could take a leap up the table if they win at Castleford, who could still be feeling the after-effects of Tuesday's rearranged fixture against the Dragons. Rob Purdham is in Harlequins' squad at Hull KR for the first time since the murder of his brother, Garry.

Andrew Johns has resigned as a coaching consultant at Parramatta in the fall-out over his remarks about aboriginal Queensland players before the State of Origin match.