Was on wish fm after the match on Friday.He said he was targeting the Catalans match for his return.

Biggest cheer of the season when his name is read out over the tannoy.

I'd give him a couple of games in the U20's to ease him in.

Surely if he's targeting the Catalan game for his return, he'll mean after next week in the U20's maybe? I'd hazard a guess Pat will have taken that into consideration himself.

Pat has had a very bad injury and I wouldnt expect too much of him when he does return. He needs games in the u21s before playing in the first team and in these games needs to prove that he is not just fit but that he is a better option than Charnley who has taken his place. Pat would have missed an awful lot of training and important pre season work so I wouldnt expect too much from him this season. As harsh as it sounds he needs to prove himself again before being offered a new contract.

Correct. Speaking as someone who has had a ruptured achilles, it is a bad injury, and we should not get our hopes too high too soon...

i can tell you that richards will walk into any team over charnley, no disrespect to the lad as he is still being blooded into the league but if you had the option of playing pat against wire last week would you have turned it down?

Yes, until he has proved himself.

im sorry but as noble as that train of thought is. one name springs to mind, brett finch, never played over here before, let alone with your wigan side

on the other hand, pat was your best player last year, best player in the league in fact, he knows how the wigan team play and has proven himself time and time again as an exceptional talent on the wing, with maguire knowing the threat of the wide balls and kicking game from wire.

i doubt maguire would feel the same way

Fully fit yes it's a no-brainer BUT the injury Pat suffered is a bad one and has ruined some players (they have never fully regained the pace and movement after such an injury) until the extent of his recovery is known it would be a huge risk to play him against anything like top opposition, after all he has not played since the GF - no pre-season or training on top of the injury itself.

Finch's injury was never career threatening, Pat's is. As I said previously I would give him a couple of games in the U20's to give him confidence and prove his fitness.

FWIW I expect him to make his first team reappearance in the Cup game v Barrow in early May.

I disagree. Any neck injury has to be considered career threatening.

the way i see it, if pat was as 'fit' as finch there would be no doubt he wouls be in the team. i put finch in apostrophes as he cannot be considered fit, which showed on friday, he took a long time to get into the game and was subbed out which would never happen if he was truly fit. i do feel sorry for finch, if he had a couple of less high profile games with which to create an understanding with the wigan forwards minus hoffman who he seemed to be awesome with he would have been a lot more potent against us on friday, but he was thrust in the deep aend and though whatever reason was found wanting in much of his play.

as far as i am aware finch didnt play in any of the u20's matches but correct me if i am wrong. the point i was trying to make was that if maguire was ready to play finch in an undoubtedly massive game, he would have no hesitation in putting pat in if he was as fit as finch before friday

The thing you're missing here is that Finch played because we have no spare FB and no spare halves that would have been capable against Wire with Deacon injured again. Pat's position has competition to overcome Finch's didnt really.

I think Paul newlove had same injury and was never the same again. It's a very serious injury so wouldn't expect him to ever get back to 100% but a 80% Richards is still pretty good.

We can't afford to take any risks with Pat. If he was only fully fit and match ready for the play-offs that would do for me. Prior to his injury he was the best winger in the comp by a country mile and I'm sure Madge will be cautious with him.

Madge knows Finch better than anyone, and he had a solid game, coming back from injury and first game in 7 months - even if he only does Deacon's role of being a good kicker and a fast pair of hands in the middle of the park for a couple of seasons. We sorely missed Deacs on Friday IMHO.

In Madge we trust.

agreed. take roberts last year when he returned for example.

If fit Pat would walk into the side. Not because Charnley is a bad player but simply Pat is a lot better and has proved it. Charnley also needs careful handling because we don't want the confidence knocking out of him.

So for me it's all about fitness. If Pat is fit, he'd get in the side as soon as his fitness allowed. The idea he might have to prove himself in the U20's to be worthy to replace Charnley is a none starter. Whether he should play a couple of games in the U20's to test his fitness is a different matter.

This is not the same as Noble picking his experienced players come what may and dropping young players like red hot coals because he would do that even if the experienced players were playing poorly or didn't merit inclusion. That does not apply to Pat IMO.

Exactly he needs to play in the u20s first not to prove hes good (hes the best in the league and I know that) but he has to prove his fitness thats all. If its a SL game we cant have him breaking down halfway through coz we may not have replacement.

Says on sky sports news Wigan hoping to have him back in couple of weeks!!

I really hope we aren't rushing him back like seemed to happen with Roberts. What he doesn't need is a recurrence, I'd much rather him start back with 40 mins in the reserves just to see how competitive rugby feels.

My brother in law saw him at the weekend on the treadmill at total fitness. Said he was going a fair old clip and looked pretty comfortable.

It's a world between that and getting tackled, stepping etc though, especially when you return the ball as hard as Pat does.