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Saints are hopeful of securing one of Salford Red Devils' most consistent performers.

St Helens have approached Salford Red Devils looking to do a deal to sign outside back Deon Cross. All Out Rugby League understands the Saints have entered transfer negotiations with the financially troubled Super League club in the hope of securing an immediate move for the Reds star.

Saints are desperately short of outside backs at present, with the likes of Kyle Feldt, Konrad Hurrell and Lewis Murphy all currently on the sidelines while Mark Percival failed a head injury assessment last week and will miss their game against Wakefield Trinity.

With their backline decimated, Saints have identified Cross as a player who can bolster their squad and given Salford's ongoing financial situation, they have approached the club in the hope of doing a deal.

As of Tuesday evening, Salford had not accepted a deal, but Saints were expected to continue their negotiations today. Saints have only named a 20-man squad for their game with Wakefield this weekend which leaves a space open to add a player. Cross was named in Salford's squad to play Leeds Rhinos on Thursday.

While Saints' squad announcement is telling, it does not necessarily mean a deal is done. Protocols state that clubs can make changes to their squad if a situation is alerted to the Rugby Football League before a squad list is named. So while the 20-man squad is telling, especially with Ben Davies left out given Salford's reported interest last week, it does not mean the deal is done.

The Reds sold Kallum Watkins to Rhinos for an undisclosed fee on Tuesday. In a statement, the club hinted further sakes may be required as the ongoing uncertainty regarding their takeover was causing financial issues.

In the statement, Salford said: "Due to the Club awaiting investor funding, and without a confirmed date for when that transaction will be complete, as well as Kallum’s request to leave the Club, we will now need to make decisions accordingly to protect our long-term future."

With their situation seemingly moving, Saints, along with several other clubs, are looking to do deals and that has seen the club move for Cross, who had previously attracted interest from Hull FC.

The two clubs have done business recently, with Jonny Vaughan heading to the Reds on a season-long loan. Salford had also hoped to land Ben Davies on a loan deal last week though due to Saints' injury issues, they had been reluctant to do that deal. That said, Davies was not selected for the Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat to Warrington, with Matt Whitley preferred and he has not been included in Saints' squad to face Wakefield this Friday.

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I believe Leeds paid Salford £25k for Watkins.

Deon Cross misses Salford Red Devils training as RFL refuse loan deal request

The future of the outside back remains up in the air.

Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley admitted he has not seen Deon Cross for several days amid ongoing interest from St Helens. The outside back has been attracting interest from the Saints in recent days but a deal has still not been agreed between the two clubs.

Cross dropped out of the Salford squad to face Leeds Rhinos last week, despite participating in the captain's run. But now, Rowley has admitted that Cross also did not train today.

“I’ve not seen Deon since after the team run," Rowley told All Out Rugby League. “I would have loved him to turn up and stick his hand up for this week, but I’m not sure what the state of play is with that one, you’d have to ask Chris (Irwin)."

Rowley added: "We had a game and he didn’t partake, and we’ve had today’s session and he’s not been here either."

Despite that, Rowley insisted no deal had been reached with St Helens that would allow Cross to make the move to his hometown club.

He’s a Salford player," Rowley said. "We have no intentions of giving away our assets that we’ve got signed up for next year as well. He's a Salford player.”

Beyond that, Rowley admitted that a request to have the number of loan players allowed within a matchday squad increased has been blocked by the Rugby Football League following the arrivals of Jake Thewlis and Harvey Makin from Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors respectively.

It is a decision that the Reds boss insists makes the notion of selling any further players unviable, as they essentially can't use any more loan players than they currently have.

We can't have any more now but our narrative was to get rid of players and get loan players in," he said. "We can't possibly get rid of any players if we can't bring anyone else in otherwise we won't be able to fulfil fixtures."

He added: "The initial response yesterday was that they've never done that before, so it's a no. But I don't think anyone has had a situation like this before so we'll keep asking that same question, but it's a solid no as we speak."

There have been calls for Salford to deal with player availability issues but fielding reserve grade players but Rowley insists the club's situation would make any such move a 'reckless' one.

"We've got an academy and reserve set up that was purposely stripped bare in the reserves to ten to 12 players that we would top up with the academy. We wanted to sacrifice results and concentrate on having that first step on the ladder of developing youngsters and creating a true pathway rather than bring in seasoned amateurs to win some fixtures. We wanted it to be there for the exact reasons it's meant for.

"So they're not ready, coming straight out of amateur and a part of no pathway until a few months ago, it would be really reckless to expose them to that. We're getting crunched, that's for sure."

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I don’t know why the RFL are behaving like this regarding loan players.

With all these restrictions against them I don’t know why the club just don’t fold up rather than keep carrying on with all these restrictions being made against them!

They can’t possibly keep trying to put out playing teams that are being decimated every week!

Just put a big stop to it all & pull the plug on Salford Red Devils for this season & the foreseeable future until this crazy ‘"takeover" is sorted! What a farce?

It does seem that they,the Rfl want rid of Salford by any means possible this ridiculous cap,which makes
No senses whatsoever now is just a punishment for buffoonery by the Salford board it’s not about saving money.

Would it happen if it where say Bradford in trouble I suspect they’d get rather a lot of help .

josie andrews wrote: ↑Tue Apr 15, 2025 6:36 pm I don’t know why the RFL are behaving like this regarding loan players.

With all these restrictions against them I don’t know why the club just don’t fold up rather than keep carrying on with all these restrictions being made against them!

They can’t possibly keep trying to put out playing teams that are being decimated every week!

Just put a big stop to it all & pull the plug on Salford Red Devils for this season & the foreseeable future until this crazy ‘"takeover" is sorted! What a farce?

Because they are under Woods leadership and he is corrupt and useless. Wouldn't be surprised to see Bradford replace them

this really is a strange one

However, i dont think all the blame can be put on the RFL. They have imposed a cap limit for a reason, and if the Salford owners dont come good with funding, then they are going to be like this all season. Rowley and Brierley have been very open and honest about the situation, and there is no doubt its probably frustrating as hell for them

I can also understand the frustration at not being allowed to play loan players, especially if the parent club is paying the wages, and thus no impact on Salfords imposed cap

i agree with other comments as the RFL appear to be hindering / obstructing, and bent over backwards in the past for Bradford, and i'm sure that the general feeling with the changes is that they are looking to fast track Bradford back into SL, whether they deserve to be there or not. I've aired my views on it several times before, and believe they need to earn it through promotion on the pitch, and also show they are sustainable and not the club they were a short while ago, who had their ground bought to save them and multiple bankruptcies