Warrington Wolves have lost their ‘heartbeat’ after captain George Williams was ruled out through injury, says Sky Sports expert Sam Tomkins.

The Wolves half-back was injured in the latter stages of his side’s 28-16 loss to Hull FC and will be out for up to 10 weeks after undergoing surgery.

Warrington face St Helens at home on Thursday, live on Sky Sports from 7.30pm, and Tomkins believes the absence of Williams could be a key factor in the Super League clash.

“He’s the heartbeat of the team, I think he’s the most influential player for one team [in the league],” Tomkins told Sky Sports.

“We’ve got stars right across the Super League, but what George does, he dictates the full attack for the Warrington side.

“He can turn up on support plays and has a great kicking game, great passing game, running game. George is a very complete player.

“I think the difficulty for Warrington is going to be what do they do without George.

“Do they try and get somebody to come in a replicate what George does, which I don’t think they’ve got the personnel for it.

“And if not, they’re probably going to have to change the way they attack, which eight games into a season, they’ve practiced all pre-season, they’ve had two months of George in there doing his stuff.

“Now they’re going to have to find a different way because they brought in Marc Sneyd, luckily.

“Marc Sneyd has a great kicking game, real organiser, but that bit of flair that George brings and his connection with [Matthew] Dufty will certainly be missed in the next couple of months.”

After Warrington’s frailties were exposed in last weekend’s 18-14 loss to Leigh Leopards, Tomkins believes coach Sam Burgess will be seeking more defensive resilience from his players.

“They show bits of brilliance, when you see the way Warrington can attack with George and Dufty, they’ve got some great edges and some real flair,” Tomkins said.

“But it’s their defence, Leigh dragged them into a tough, gritty game and hung on as well.

“When people like Lachlan Lam are running at a line like that, Warrington have just got to be more resilient in defence, making decisions really close to their own line, which they wouldn’t want to be doing.

“I think the absence of George Williams is only going to make that harder for them.

“When Sam Burgess came and took over the reins at the start of last year, it made a massive difference in their defence.

“So he’s going to have to look back at what he changed at the start of last year and get back into that.

“They’ve got to focus a bit more on their defence I imagine and try and make sure that syncs up with their attack because we know how good they can be in attack.”

Tomkins: Wade is ‘exciting’ signing for Wigan

Christian Wade, the former NFL running back, has made the switch from rugby union to league after announcing he was joining reigning champions Wigan Warriors earlier this month.

Tomkins hailed Wade’s arrival at Wigan as “brilliant and really exciting for the sport.”

“Christian Wade is an obvious athlete, he’s been over to play American Football, he’s played top-level rugby union, he’s fast, he’s exciting every time he gets the ball,” Tomkins said.

“I wouldn’t expect him to come in and be the best player on the field from day one because there’s massive differences [between league and union].

“I think sometimes it’s underestimated the difference between rugby league and rugby union, there’s some similarities but also some huge differences positionally.

“I’m sure he’s doing lots of research now and I’m sure Matty Peat will be in his ear, although he’s finishing the year off with Gloucester he’ll have to get doing some studying on rugby league.

“But it’s exciting, I think it’s a very smart move from Wigan.”

Watch Warrington v St Helens on Thursday (7.30pm) and Hull FC vs Wigan on Sunday (3pm), live on Sky Sports.