Daryl Powell: Warrington Wolves scouring player market after Josh McGuire exit

Daryl Powell has lost an experienced 'middle' player in Josh McGuire, and is keen on adding cover

Warrington Wolves are actively scouring the player market with a view to replacing the departed Josh McGuire, says boss Daryl Powell.

Ex-Australia and Queensland forward McGuire left the club after a second lengthy ban of the season meant he would miss most of the 2023 season.

His exit opened up salary cap space, and an overseas player quota spot.

"We have two quota spots, so we are looking all of the time," Powell said at Wednesday's press conference.

"But we don't want to make a rash decision. We've got [academy forward] Lucas Green who's come in and done a decent job as a young player coming through.

"I'm keen to give those guys opportunities, but they've got to hold their own and he's done a pretty good job has Lucas.

"But we are looking, we're looking pretty hard at the moment."

McGuire, who also represented Samoa, twice received bans for unacceptable language, cutting short his Wire career.

He arrived with a 259-game NRL pedigree as well as a World Cup-winners medal from the Kangaroos' 2017 triumph, but featured only seven times.

"I'm disappointed that it came to this," Powell said. "We wanted him to come and be a huge part of what we were going to do, and that hasn't materialised for different reasons.

"It leaves us really light in the middle unit and that has an impact on everyone else."