WARRINGTON Wolves expect to welcome back Kurt Gidley and Ryan Bailey for Sunday’s trip to Castleford Tigers, but Jordan Cox continues to miss out through concussion.

Influential half back and former Australia international Gidley faces a fitness test later this week after missing the past two matches with a minor hamstring injury.

Experienced prop Bailey, after recovering from Achilles operations and forcing his way into Tony Smith’s side, was a late withdrawal from Thursday’s win against Salford with a painful gallstones issue.

“Ryan will probably need an operation at the end of the year, if we can get through until then,” said Smith.

“He’s on some medication at the moment to help ease the situation.

“It all came the night before the game last week so there was a late reshuffle.

“It was unexpected for Ryan but fortunately he’s missed only one week and he’s back in the mix."

The returns of Gidley and Bailey are likely to be the only changes.

Winger Kevin Penny, who last week missed out on selection to the recalled Tom Lineham, is due to feature in the reserve-grade clash against Hull FC at Victoria Park Stadium on Saturday, kick off 1pm.

“Kev missed out on selection against Salford," said Smith.

"He will probably be in the reserves on Saturday, giving him an opportunity to put his case forward for the next round – as will a few other guys as well. There won’t be too many changes from last week.”

But impact prop Cox is to miss a second game as a result of being on the end of two punches from James Green in the draw at Hull Kingston Rovers on July 1.

Smith said: “He took a substantial knock and he’s had a couple of concussions this year so we’re giving him a lot of healing.

“He was given a total 10-day rest from training, then he’ll steadily resume training and get back into it.

"When you’ve had a couple of concussions there’s a duty of care and also protocol to go through. We have expert help that we refer to and we’re just being extra cautious with that.”

With Ben Evans expected to be recalled from his loan period at Leigh Centurions this week, and some of the long-term absentees drawing close to returns, Wolves are in good condition as the Challenge Cup semi-final meeting with Wakefield Trinity looms on July 31 along with the Super 8s starting in August.

Smith has indicated he may continue to ‘rest up’ players as and when they need it, as he did in the reduced game time afforded to skipper Chris Hill (44mins) and back rower Ben Currie (50mins) last time out.

“I took an opportunity to do something that Ben rarely gets – and that’s a break for him," said Smith.

"He’s an 80-minute man, but the main reason I took him off is that leading into the game he felt a bit off with an illness.

“Being aware of that, and with the score line that it was, it gave me the opportunity to get him off the park along with Chris Hill, who only played 44 minutes which is way down for him.

“Sometimes it may affect our performance by taking some players off in order to give them a break. We may well have gone on to score more points or be more effective and contribute more to our victories, but that’s the job I’ve got to do – to juggle whether to get more fuel in their tanks for the coming weeks and big matches, or do we go on and score points and really put a team to the sword.

“Sometimes, depending on the information to hand like knowing Currie was a bit off with illness, it has to be considered was another 6 or 10 points going to make much difference to our ‘for’ and ‘against’ as compared to making sure he was available for the next game. The same for Chris Hill.

“Sometimes I get those right and sometimes I don’t, but sometimes I have a little bit more information than most people for making those decisions."

Smith added: “We’ve had to play people with injury at different stages because we haven’t had back-up, but that’s not the case at the moment.

“We’re in reasonably good condition, including players being able to train which was our big issue, so now it’s about getting some consistency in our performances.

“Having a 10-day turnaround this time has been heaven in terms of getting people to train and freshen them up. They had a little break at the weekend and they’ve come back with a real spring in their step so hopefully that will come out in the performance this week.”

Mitch Dodds, who broke his leg in the win at Catalans Dragons in March, had the pin taken out on Tuesday.

Smith said: “That allows him to be more weight bearing now, so it’s full steam ahead in terms of building it up over the next month.

“He’s done tremendously well in his recovery and looked after his body incredibly well. Now it’s a case of building up workload in order to resume playing, hopefully in a month’s time.”

Ben Harrison is on a similar timescale as he continues the comeback trail from shoulder, knee and ankle surgery since the end of last season.

“We’ve taken the opportunity to fix him all up," said Smith.

“He’s had knee, ankle and shoulder tidy-ups, and one couldn’t be done until the other one was healed because of things like uses of crutches at certain times.

“There’s had to be an order. He probably could have resumed sooner without having some of the operations but it felt the wiser thing was to get everything fixed rather than him break something else and then miss the rest of the season.

“Ben is still going through some rehab but we’ll be hopeful that he’ll be back playing in about a month."

James Laithwaite may only be a couple of weeks away after his broken leg of 2015 was complicated by a stress fracture in his knee sustained during the rehab work he was undergoing.

Smith said: “He’s on the verge of a comeback in the next few weeks. He’s had some setbacks in terms of his rehab, but he’s building the workload up and is not far off."

Jack Johnson (fractured wrist) is around two weeks away from a return too, while Gary Wheeler (Achilles) remains in rehab and training with the club.

Mood in the camp is positive and Smith agrees it feels like a little corner has been turned.

He said: “There were signs of that this week against Salford.

"There was some brilliant stuff within the Salford match, some of our attack was really fluent and up to the levels that we are looking for.

“Unfortunately, there was still a little bit of scrappiness. Some of our defensive lapses looked ugly at times, particularly when we’ve been pretty good this year as our ‘for’ and ‘against’ shows, so when we do have a lapse it does stand out.

“While some of our attack has gone off at different stages, our defence has been pretty consistent.

“So for that not to be good a couple of times, made us feel a bit disappointed."

Smith identified players he considers to be hitting the high notes currently.

“Joe Westerman and Ryan Atkins are in really good form," he said.

"Some of Chrissie Sandow’s game last week was top drawer. He missed a kick for touch, but he came up with two 40-20s, as well as a reverse kick on Gareth O’Brien into the in-goal which was brilliant. And then he played a hand in two or three tries. So when most half backs have those contributions you’re pretty happy with their games.

“There’s a level we’ve got to and expect with Chrissie, and sometimes if he’s a little bit off in some areas, we’re a bit critical of him. He had some brilliant contributions last week as well as some other people.

“I thought Bennie Westwood was back to some of his better stuff and Ashton Sims’ contributions were good as well.

“He’s wholehearted and wants to do the best for the club and sometimes he’s let some of his aggression overflow into discrepancies. But he controlled it really well last week, while also throwing his weight around.”