TONY Smith fears he may be without Trent Waterhouse after the Australian suffered a knee injury in Warrington Wolves’ win against St Helens.

Wolves welcomed back Ben Westwood after a lengthy lay off with a calf injury, while Stefan Ratchford continued to impress since his return last weekend.

But Smith admitted it could be one in, one out for Wolves, with second-rower Waterhouse needing to undergo a scan.

“We’re a bit fearful on Waterhouse,” he explained. “I think he’s done a medial strain.

“We’ll have him scanned, we could have got one back and lost one. Lately we’ve been getting a few back so hopefully it’ll be good news on the ‘House’.”

Ratchford marked his return against Catalan Dragons last week with a try and joint-skipper Westwood was at the forefront of Wolves’ early dominance in the Magic Weekend victory.

“Having Westwood back was fantastic, he looked like he hadn’t missed a week,” added Smith. “He (Ratchford) was pretty good last week after having some injuries.

“He was coming good before he got injured as well and probably didn’t have the start to the season he would like but he’s been building that up.

“A number of our players have, we had a few more senior players out there and that makes a difference when you’ve got that experience.”

Smith could add to that experience with Simon Grix and Richie Myler next weekend: “Grixy and Myler should be back next week, we held him back their so we’ve got another experienced player ready to come back.”

He is also confident the younger players in the squad are starting to step up their game, with Matty Russell adding a spectacular try from inside his own half in the win over Saints.

“The young guys are really stepping up as well,” said Smith. “They’ve gained a whole lot of experience and learned about what requirements are necessary for Super League.

“That comes with games and getting beaten sometimes and reacting, some things went our way today, and we made it go our way in that first half particularly.

“I thought our scrambling defence was enormous, we covered for each other on many occasions. There was some stuff we didn’t do so well but we covered for each other and that’s a big thing.

“That team there was about to go top of the tree if they’d had a win off us, so we might be alright still, we might be OK.”