Injury-ridden Saints' final preparations in disarray

St Helens have put out an appeal for volunteers to face Bradford on Saturday because of their lengthy injury list and have even invited the Rugby League to verify their claim that 10 regular first-teamers are out.

Ian Millward, the Saints coach, has threatened to leave most of his first-choice players out of the Super League match at Valley Parade which comes a week ahead of the Challenge Cup final. But he insists that all of them are genuinely injured.

"The Rugby League can send down their own physio and rule on who is fit and who is not. I bet [the physio] would tell us that even more of them are injured,'' Millward said.

It was easier for him to list the players who are fit after the semi-final win over Leeds. Those he expects to play against Bradford are Darren Albert, Tommy Martyn, Paul Wellens, Mick Higham and Dwayne West, with John Stankevich fit but suffering from flu.

That leaves players such as Keiron Cunningham, Sean Long and Paul Sculthorpe definitely on the sidelines whilst Saints run around trying to bring in short-term replacements.

"We're phoning around trying to find players who are disgruntled at their present clubs and bring them in on a month's trial,'' said Millward, before calling for a reduction in the burden placed on players to try to avoid similar situations in future. "I'm all for international football, but we can't have the programme put in place and still play 28 Super League games,'' he said.

"We have to protect our players. We only have 22 full-time players and with no Alliance Rugby this season I'm left with the option of throwing in kids from the Under-19s and they're just not ready.''

Saints' opponents in the final are Wigan and their coach, Stuart Raper, has promised to adopt a rather different policy for his side's game against Warrington on Friday.

Although he has already ruled out Paul Johnson, Bret Dallas and Gary Connolly with injuries which are expected to clear up in time for Murrayfield, he intends to field the rest of his first-choice line-up. "If you lose heavily when you know you've rested a lot of guys, it can dent your confidence,'' he said.

"The Warrington game is not just an important two points, it's an important part of our preparations. We want to go into the game against Saints on the back of a good win.''

Raper, who said he has his cup final 15 in his mind, hopes to have David Furner and Jamie Ainscough, who both missed the semi-final victory over Castleford through illness, back for the Warrington match.