Eager Paul Sykes is bidding to put himself straight back in the frame for improving Bulls as they gear up for a huge tussle with St Helens.

The World Cup centre was a surprise omission from their victory over Warrington after pulling up with a hamstring strain in training last week.

Having seen his ever-present record ruined, Sykes is now striving to make sure he doesn’t have to sit out another match – especially with Super League front-runners Saints coming to town.

“This is the sort of game no one wants to miss,” admitted the England international.

“St Helens at Odsal is obviously a great fixture, while we’ve won two on the bounce and want to get a winning streak going now.

“We’ve got a couple of really tough games coming up, with Leeds straight after Saints as well, but this is what it’s all about. We’re looking for another win to set us up and it should be a great game down here.”

The Bulls medical team don’t think Sykes’ injury is too severe and he will undergo a fitness test to see if he can quickly return to the fray.

He took part in light training earlier this week but hopes to step things up before the weekend.

“It’s all right and not too bad at the moment,” explained the former Harle-quins ace.

“I’m getting a bit of strength back into it and will have a bit of a trot soon to see how it goes.

“I’d just pulled the hamstring slightly in training last week. It was a sudden thing but not too severe.

“I could have played at Warrington at a push but it’s not worth rushing these sorts of injuries as you can end up being out for months instead of days or weeks. We’ll see how it gets on.”

Sykes was influential when the Bulls came up with a shock win at St Helens back in April.

Pressed into action as an emergency stand-off, he outplayed England team-mate Leon Pryce and helped steer Steve McNamara’s side to their first success at Knowsley Road in four years.

Bradford have had their ups and downs since but head into Sunday’s game on the back of victories over Wakefield and Warrington, with Sykes believing they are capable of continuing that run.

“If we perform like we did that last time over there then there’s no reason why we can’t come away with two points again,” said the player, who has hit his own purple patch with six tries in just four games since.

“They’ll have a couple of personnel back this time but so will we, so it’s all set.”