St Helens will be without prolific points scorer Jamie Foster (thigh) for their competitive bow at their new Langtree Park Stadium.
Ade Gardner will come in for Foster while Saints are hopeful forward Tony Puletua is fit to return from shoulder and elbow injuries.
Salford hooker Wayne Godwin and centre Sean Gleeson are both ruled out.
Utility man Stuart Howarth is set to deputise at hooker with forward Shannon McPherson coming in for Gleeson.
Saints started the season well last Saturday, coming back from a half-time deficit to win 34-24 at The Stoop against London Broncos.
They also boast a good record against their North West neighbours, having run in 26 tries in three successive league victories over Salford.
But Salford did beat Saints at The Willows in May 2010, the then on-loan Matty Smith scoring a hat-trick against his parent club.
And the St Helens-born scrum-half was also on the scoresheet in the Reds' opening weekend 24-10 home defeat against Castleford, scoring the first try when Salford too christened their own new stadium.
St Helens forward Jon Wilkin told BBC Radio Merseyside:
"There are a number of things to take into account this week.
"Salford will be wanting to play well and we didn't put in a convincing performance last week, but we got the result.
"But the main factor has got to be the stadium and Salford will to turn up here and will be buoyed because it's such a nice place to play.
"We must approach the game in a confident manner, play quickly and try and really break the Salford team down."
SQUADS
St Helens: Gardner, Soliola, Meli, Hohaia, Lomax, Perry, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Puletua, Wilkin, Flannery, Laffranchi, Clough, Wheeler, Dixon, Gaskell, Makinson, Hale, Ashe.
Salford: Patten, Broughton, Moon, Gibson, Williams, Holdsworth, Smith, Jewitt, Sidlow, James, Ashurst, McPherson, Wild, Nero, Adamson, Anderson, Howarth, Paleaaesina, Gledhill.
