CHRIS Bridge could be sidelined for the rest of the season.

Wolves' full back left the field with a suspected ruptured Achilles' tendon in tonight's 30-22 defeat at Knowsley Road.

He will need further tests before the full scale of the damage is known.

The injury occurred in the 13th minute while in the process of being tackled after collecting the ball from deep.

His departure forced head coach Paul Cullen to bring on Paul Johnson earlier than expected, as a winger rather than a forward as planned. Chris Hicks switched to full back in Bridge's absence.

But with Matt King also hobbling from a 50th second bang on his calf, Cullen was forced into another first-half change in the back line.

Andy Bracek, planned to be rotating with the props, was asked to do an emergency job at centre - as he did several times last season.

Saints exploited the weakened left side with three tries in the opening eight minutes of the second half.

Cullen stopped the flow of tries by moving Vinnie Anderson to left centre, a move he said was not done earlier because the Kiwi was needed in the pack for longer because of the loss of substitute options.