WARRINGTON Wolves’ England warriors will be afforded time to fully recover from their 2017 campaigns before starting their preparations for the next one.

Narrow defeat to Australia in the Rugby League World Cup Final in Brisbane, Australia, on Saturday brought an end to minimum 12-month seasons on or off the field for The Wire skipper Chris Hill, Kevin Brown, Ben Currie and Stefan Ratchford.

“They’ve had a very long year, probably gone over 12 months since starting pre-season last year,” said Jon Clarke, The Wire’s head of strength and conditioning.

“We’ve had confirmation that they’re all pretty healthy, although feeling the effects of a 12 to 13 month season.

“It’s now just a case of getting a good rest and refreshing them between the ears as well as physically and getting them right for what’s going to be hopefully a really exciting season next year.

“They’ve certainly been a huge consideration in terms of recovery and how we’re going to work with them upon their return.

“It will be the end of December/beginning of January that they will be expected back in.”

Clarke feels that Hill was outstanding in the final at Suncorp Stadium and that all of The Wire men had ‘pretty good tours’, while highlighting his pleasure at Currie playing a significant role in the tournament at the end of a year which he mainly spent recovering from major knee surgery.

“It was great to see Ben coming through a few games back-to-back without any issues. We’ll get him back in and start building him up again hopefully for a good year next year,” said Clarke.

While the last of the new signings, Tongan Ben Murdoch-Masila, is expected in town a week before Christmas, Wolves’ other World Cup players George King and Joe Philbin (Ireland) as well as Matty Russell (Scotland) are set to get stuck into hard graft again shortly after their break.

“One or two might do a couple of sessions later this week as a bit of a lead-in to being back in with us full-time next week,” said Clarke.

“They’ve also had a long year, a World Cup, a lot of travel. It’s not just about recovery physically but about recovery psychologically and making sure that when they come back they are ready to do so and not still feeling the effects of travelling to Australia and playing.”