It’s been a case of swings and roundabouts for Whitehaven this week, for while two players have been ruled out through suspension, a further two on the long-time injured list are back in training.

Brett Phillips and Sam Forrester will both serve a one-match ban for tripping when Haven square-up to joint Championship leaders Toulouse Olympique at the Recreation Ground on Sunday.

But Connor Holliday and Sam Dowsett were both in training on Wednesday and if they don’t suffer any reaction from tonight’s session are likely to play a part in Sunday’s game.

The pair have both been side-lined with hamstring problems and neither has figured in any of the three Championship games so far.

Losing Phillips and Forrester at the same time is a blow as the second-row forward should have served his ban last Sunday. Unfortunately, the Challenge Cup game with Dewsbury Rams was postponed because of the state of the Recreation Ground pitch and that suspension rolled on to the next game, which is Toulouse, the match already being used for Forrester’s ban.

Phillips’ tripping incident had been put on report at London Broncos, although he stayed on the field.

Forrester was yellow-carded in the Oldham game for the trip which led to the controversial match-winning penalty try.

Meanwhile Whitehaven and Dewsbury are still waiting for confirmation of the re-staging of their Challenge Cup-tie.

Chairman Tom Todd said: “We are 90% certain that it is going to be played on Wednesday, March 11 but await official word from the RFL.”

“In the end I think we had four different options but as far as we are concerned, and are quite happy with, is that we will play in mid-week after we have been to Widnes on the Sunday.

“Dewsbury already have a Championship game to rearrange in midweek so they are going to be quite busy.”

It means the fifth round Cup-tie at Newcastle Thunder will follow four days after the Haven/Dewsbury mid-week showdown.

Team manager Des Byrne said: “The weather seems to be ok over the next few days. There will be the odd shower which we can cope with. It’s the monsoon conditions we got at the week-end that cause the problems.

“I have to say, generally however, the pitch is coping well. In days gone by it would have been a quagmire and things have improved considerably.”