WOLVES boss Tony Smith says steering away from Sunday matches would benefit the players and improve chances of winning.

He has raised concerns all season about the numbers of injuries at all clubs and the impact of short recovery times for teams who play on a Thursday or Friday following a Sunday game.

Supporters have been asked in a recent survey when they would prefer to see home matches played, and Smith believes The Wire are at a disadvantage if they continue with regular Sunday afternoon slots.

“We won’t be able to afford to play Sunday games any more,” he said.

“Well, we’ll have to consider what our speccies feel about that, but if they want a winning team you can’t play Sundays because if you draw the TV game on a Thursday or Friday you disadvantage yourself.

“All the big clubs play their home games on Fridays – you’ve got to join them otherwise you’re going to make it hard for your own team.

“Certainly we’re listening to our speccies on what they want, but they’ve also got to consider whether they want a winning team and a team that can compete.”

Smith said he does like the occasion of Sunday afternoon matches.

"I'm a bit of a traditionalist. I like the Sunday afternoons rugby but if your team wants to win you can't play Sundays too often."

And he thinks the issue of the numbers of injuries across Super League this year needes to be looked at by the sport as a whole.

"We've got to look at why are so many clubs suffering with so many injuries," he said.

"It could be stuff we're all doing in training, it could be the short turnarounds, it could be all sorts of things but we need to work it out at some stage why we're losing so many players during a season.

"I think it was week three when I fielded my first request from opposition coaches asking if I've got any loan players and I told them I might be ringing them in a few weeks' time.

"That's how it's been this year for many clubs.

"I don't know the answers, but we need to look at it, ask some questions and consider how we're going to avoid it once we know the answers."

He said embargo dates may be one consideration.

"If we're having short turnarounds maybe have some rules like they do in other sports whereby if you play on a certain day you can't before the next certain day, taking care of our players that way," he said.