James Roby may play for Saints at Bradford despite fractured eye socket

James Roby will play for St Helens in their televised Super League game at Bradford on Sunday evening, despite being ruled out of the England team for Friday night's defeat by the Exiles with a fractured eye socket. Roby has been given permission to play by the England coaching and medical staff who agreed he would not have been fit to take a full part in last week's preparation for Friday's game, but that the extra 48 hours may make a significant difference. Saints will give their hooker a final fitness test hours before the game but Scott Moore, who would have been his obvious replacement, has been omitted from the squad. The St Helens chairman, Eamonn McManus, said that was nothing to do with a possible breach of the club's disciplinary code, although Moore will be asked to explain himself this week. Saints also remain hopeful that their six players who were involved in Friday's game – Tony Puletua, Francis Meli and Sia Soliola for the Exiles, and James Graham, Jon Wilkin and Michael Shenton for England – will have recovered sufficiently to play some part at Odsal. The Exiles fixture, in which England were beaten 16-12 by a team drawn from the overseas players employed in the Super League, has been acclaimed as a major success by the Rugby Football League, suggesting it will be repeated next season – almost certainly on a weekend free of club fixtures, to avoid players being asked to turn out twice inside 48 hours. However, the England captain, Jamie Peacock, and several other players have criticised the minority of Friday's 14,000 crowd at Headingley who booed Sam Tomkins at regular intervals. The Wigan full-back, who produced two brilliant try-saving tackles on Rangi Chase and Pat Richards in the first half that kept England in the game, admitted the abuse had "taken the shine off the night".