Cowling graduates at home against Saints

Prop Oliver Wilkes returns from a one-match ban to take the place of Matt James, who pulled a calf muscle in training.

St Helens are without England forward Jon Wilkin, who joins Sia Soliola on the injured list.

Either Shaun Magennis or Joe Greenwood, who made his Super League debut in the home win over Wakefield in May, will fill the hole while stand-off Lee Gaskell is also recalled to Mike Rush’s 19-man squad.

Wakefield coach Richard Agar said bringing Cowling into the team was a sensible move in the circumstances.

“Dean Collis is suspended so we are not going to tinker too much with it,” he said.

“We are probably going to go like for like so Danny Cowling will come in who has been on dual registration at Doncaster.

“He performed particularly well there and he had a pretty nasty hand injury but he performed ok last week so rather than making a couple of positional changes by putting one of our back-rowers there we have decided to put Danny in our squad.

“It would have been Danny or Liam Kay, who has been performing really well in our 20’s this year and he has had a little taste of first grade.

“But he is injured so it is a straightforward choice as Dean is out along with Vinny Mellars so we are going to give Danny a start in the right centre.”

Despite last Monday’s 22-12 defeat at home to Warrington, Saints’ hooker James Roby believes his side are still in the thick of the title race.

“Over the last couple of months we have played really well and knocked off wins in a row,” said Roby. “We know what we are capable of.

“There are four rounds before the play-offs and we want to do as well as we can. I wouldn’t say the result against Warrington was a setback – it doesn’t mean it has derailed our hopes.”