Wigan Warriors name 19-man squad for Castleford game
Sean O’Loughlin misses out with thigh injury, Joe Bretherton takes his place in the squad
Wigan Warriors face Castleford Tigers at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle on Thursday 26 May, 8pm kick-off

John Bateman, Joe Bretherton, Greg Burke, Josh Charnley, Dom Crosby, Ben Flower, Oliver Gildart, Willie Isa, Dom Manfredi, Lee Mossop, Sam Powell, Dan Sarginson, Matty Smith, Ryan Sutton, Taulima Tautai, Lewis Tierney, Joel Tomkins, Sam Tomkins & George Williams.

Wigan and England Captain Sean O’Loughlin drops out of the squad after picking up a thigh injury in the Magic Weekend win over Leeds with Joe Bretherton coming into the squad.

Joel Tomkins failed a late fitness test on a knee injury last week but retains his place in the squad.

O’Loughlin joins Tony Clubb (neck), Liam Farrell (chest), Michael McIlorum (ankle) and Anthony Gelling (chest) on the sidelines.

Updating on the condition of the Wigan squad, Shaun Wane said: “Joel had some swelling around his knee but is ok this week. Both him and Liam Farrell might need something doing during the off-season.

“Sean O’Loughlin isn’t looking good. He won’t be out there this week unfortunately. Anthony Gelling (chest) will be another two weeks. Micky is doing ok but he’s still a long time off.

“Tony Clubb (neck) is out for 12 weeks with a neck injury, which is a blow.

I'd go same as last week but Joel in for Lockers and Bateman at 13.

Definitely same again with that one change if Joel is fit. It sounds like he's going to be nursing an injury for the rest of the season which is far from ideal and Faz will be much the same.

We just can't seem to shift the injuries.

Yep, me too.

With Ben Roberts of Castleford ruled out for the season Ryan Hampshire is in the named 19, it will be interesting if he is in the final 17 what position he takes.

Will do really well to get a result tonight. We always seem to struggle there anyway but add to that Cas are red hot at the moment.

Not confident.

Isa is just awful in defence and attack I'm afraid.

Great win that at Cas against an in form team! Our right edge defence is shocking but thought all props have been outstanding and we have somewhat profited from Cas dropped balls and poor discipline.

I'm absolutely made up tonight. A massive improvement on where we have been.

I am made up about that too. Deserved win against a good Cas side. Kicking game vastly improved; Smith has looked a different player since Sam returned, and Williams had a fine game too. Even our "can't pass"centres chipped in with a couple of assists.

Along with Longy, Smith has to be the best drop goaler under pressure I've seen.

It was a good win but has someone as mentioned our right edge defence was shocking and Gildart was out of position more than once.
But in his defence he is a left centre who is 19 years old and has played on the left from being a kid, why didn't they play Sarginson on the right. He is the one who is going at the end of the season, so let him have the feeling of playing out of position but also this is a perennial problem Wigan's right hand defence has been dodgy for quite a while.

He gets a lot of stick on here but he's won us a few games this year with his coolness under pressure.

Massive win, that. Happy days!

Great win, Massive result for us. Hopefully we can kick on now.

Tomkins defensively had a great game. Didn't struggle under those high balls despite the constant pressure from Solamona. Sam just being on the field seems to give Williams and Smith so much more time/space to go about their business and now smith isn't on his own under the spot light he came up with one of his best games of the season.

Our completion rate/handling seemed to me like the best it has been so far and dare I say it but I felt Mossop went about his business well tonight too.

Gildarts defence was the main concern coming away from tonight. Just couldn't handle the size/pace of Webster but other than that I don't have any real negatives.

Thought Smith worked very well with Powell and Williams, for me Powell had a pretty good influential game.

Good win, last 10mins were a bit more edgy than they needed to be but that was probably our best away performance for a long time, well done from me

Firstly I think that was our best performance of the season. To beat a team on form on their own small pitch took some doing.

I do once again have an issue with some very dumb plays that nearly cost us the match.

Crosby for their first try gets sucked in messes about trying to play the tough guy get caught out of position as he is too busy trying to have a fight.

Manfredi and Isa offloads when we should have made the game comfortable, shocking. Particularly the Isa one.

Another 40 minute performance. If we string a game together we will be comfortably the best team in the comp.

Thought Props were very good tonight at times.

Isa works hard but offers little, did Joel Tomkins play?

Good performance -in parts. Forwards showed up and worked hard , I for one think having Williams back has helped Smith at HB no end - Sam also helps too. Had no problem with Smith being MOM. Attack looked at bit sharper with a bit more off the ball running. We drifted out of the game a bit in the later part of the first half which was a worry but came back stronger in the second half.All the props showed up well I thought.

The Leeds game and now this game shows we are getting better but like Wane said post match there is still more to come and with other teams not being hugely consistent it bodes well, if we can get through the next few away games with a decent points haul we will be in a good position.

The forwards played very well at times, we actually got some quick PTBs and a roll-on - which helped the half-backs.

I think Powell deserves a special mention, worked hard in defence for the whole 90min and backed himself to set up the drop-goal.

As others have said, Isa was especially poor last night. That pass from the floor in front of his own sticks near the end was unforgivable.

Agreed. I don't really see what Isa brings to the team. Took his tries well last week, to be fair, but he looked a bit out of his depth last night.

That offload very nearly cost us the match.

Agree about Powell. Deserves credit for holding onto that ball on the slide for what turned out to be the winning try.

40 tackles
Took first hit up 4/5 times in his own half in difficult circumstances.

Overall ok with last night although I don't think he's been any great shakes
However given Farrell's current absence and Joel's pending absence I don't mind a guy who will do 20 hit ups and 40 tackles a game (With a bit of Bite in his game) as long as he isn't rank bad awful.
To me he looks decent, solid and a good aggressive back up player which will do for me.

To be fair to him, he isn't the only one to try a stupid offload in recent months.

So long as he reins that in, I agree with you.