Wakefield Trinity star Bill Tupou to miss rest of 2021 Super League campaign after suffering knee injury in loss to Castleford Tigers

The long-serving centre, who joined Trinity in 2018, was hurt 13 seconds before half-time in Wednesday’s 18-12 home loss to Castleford Tigers.

He was taken off the field on a stretcher, after a long stoppage and the club confirmed on Thursday he has suffered a ruptured patellar tendon.

He will undergo surgery next week, which will rule him out for the rest of the 2021 campaign.

“He is distraught he’s got injured and we have to make sure we get round him and give him the support he needs,” coach Chris Chester said after the game.

Chester insisted Tupou’s injury was not an excuse for Trinity’s defeat, their second in succession, but first in four home matches.

“We had Joe Arundel on the bench for a reason.

“There’s been a few games this year where we’ve lost outside-backs.

“Joe Arundel was perfect for number 14 this week, I thought he did really well in the back-row last week.

“There’s no excuses in that respect.

“I don’t think it had an effect on the result.”

Trinity came close to levelling the scores in the final minutes, having been 12 points down with 20 minutes left, but Chester had no complaints about the result and felt his side were “our own worst enemies”.

He said: “I thought we started the game well, but I was really disappointed to concede two tries from kicks.

“We need to do better on the kicks.

“I thought, structurally, we looked all right defensively, but our attack was a long way off.

“We weren’t good enough, it was a really disappointing loss.”

Chester confirmed winger Tom Johnstone came through his comeback match, after a two-month lay-off with concussion, unscathed.

“We need to get him in the game a little bit more and he needs to get himself in the game,” Chester admitted.

“But just to have him back out there was good.”

Trinity have another home game next Thursday, against Wigan Warriors, before a short turn around to a Monday-evening game away to Salford Red Devils.

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