WARRINGTON head into a tough Easter period without three players Tony Smith believes are key to Wolves’ campaign.

Ben Westwood picked up a calf strain in the Challenge Cup win at Hull KR, while Simon Grix dislocated his shoulder and Paul Wood suffered a tear in his bicep during the Super League defeat.

And Smith said he particularly felt for Wood and Grix, who have only recently recovered from serious injuries.

“It’s a pretty low dressing room for them really more than the result,” he said. “We know how much hard work they’ve been through to get themselves back and when you look over to see they’ve got to go through a similar sort of period of rehabilitation it’s quite devastating for them.

“I feel for both those boys as they’ve both had long extensive rehabilitation and they’ve come up with fresh injuries.

“It’s not a reoccurrence of their injuries that they’ve been fighting back from, but neither one of them has been back long so they both feel like they’ve crossed path with a black cat or something.

“With Westwood as well, the calibre of player is high, big experienced players and we’re feeling for all of them at the moment. Bennie will be back within a few weeks.”

Smith said it is now important to look after his charges heading into a clash with Widnes Vikings on Friday and at Castleford Tigers on Sunday.

“We had a few bumps and bruises going into the game and we’ve got some big matches, a number of matches coming up within day of each other so we need to take care of our people,” he added.