SAINTS scrum half Lewis Dodd has explained why he played on last year despite picking up a shoulder injury midway through the campaign.

The 21-year-old former Halton Farnworth Hornets junior played through the pain barrier because he did not want to let his departing colleagues down in what was another big, but challenging year for the club.

Dodd has now had surgery on a torn labrum and is in rehab at pre-season training, but will be fit for the start of the season in February.

The labrum is the cartilage lining of socket of the shoulder joint and helps keep the joint in place.

Speaking to Saints TV at the club's training ground, Dodd said: “I had surgery on my shoulder in the off-season after tearing my labrum half way through the year.

“I had the surgery at the end of the season and I am in the middle of rehab now and it’s all good.

“I played on with a lot of strapping and painkillers, but with it being Robes and Louie’s last year I didn’t want to let anyone down.

“It is the same with whoever you ask with injury, you don’t want to let the team down.

“You just get out there and I felt like I was good to go and felt I would not let the boys down.

“That was the main reason.”

Dodd famously kicked the match-winning Golden Point drop goal in the World Club Challenge win over Penrith Panthers.

Remarkably that tussle was Dodd’s first senior game after returning to the fold at the beginning of the having seen his 2022 wrecked by a ruptured Achilles sustained on Good Friday.

2024 is a big year for the talented Widnesian, who has one more year to run on his current contract with a further two-year option in his favour.

Dodd was not the only Saints half back to play on through injury, with fellow ever present Jonny Lomax playing on despite suffering broken ribs early on the campaign.

Remarkably Saints I, 6 and 7 of Jack Welsby, Lomax and Dodd played in all 33 of the club’s senior league and Challenge Cup matches in 2023.