Wakefield Trinity news: major blow as first-choice pair suffer season-ending injuries
Two Wakefield Trinity players have been ruled out for the rest of this season and one is unlikely to play again in 2026.
Coach Daryl Powell today (Friday) revealed centre Oli Pratt is facing a long layoff, along with forwards Matty Storton and Tray Lolesi, after being injured during last week’s defeat at Wigan Warriors. Of Pratt and Storton, Powell told his weekly press conference ahead of tomorrow’s BBC 2-televised home clash with York Knights: “Both are out for the season.
“Oli needs an operation on his hamstring. It’s a recurrence. We knew there was a decent chance of recurrence but we were hoping that wouldn’t be the case. The operation will keep him out for four months so he will get back in December sometime into pre-season.”
Powell admitted: “It is a tough injury, he has had a tough year with it. He hasn’t been able to get going and obviously he is a really high-quality player for us, but it is what it is. He’s disappointed, but just wants to get op’ done and then he can move on.
The team boss added: “Matty Storton won’t need an operation, but he’ll be in a brace for up to 12 weeks I think. He has got an mcl knee ligament injury.”
Though Lolesio hasn’t yet been written off for the current campaign, Powell revealed: “He has done a hamstring. It’s unlikely he will play again this year, which is disappointing. I feel like the last couple of games we’ve been pretty unlucky with significant injuries which have left us heavily depleted on the bench. Against the best teams it’s pretty tough when that happens.”
Prop Emre Guler made an early move to Trinity last week from St George-Illawarra Dragons and was expected to make his debut at Wigan. He didn’t play in that game and isn’t in the initial squad for tomorrow.
Powell explained: “We thought it was a bit of a risk him playing last week. He has picked up a minor groin injury, but it’s not too bad and I’d expect him to be fit next week. We want him to be available if or when we get into the play-offs - that’s important, so we’ve been pretty cautious with him this week.”
Trinity have lost their last three games and are fighting to not only hold on to fourth place in Betfred Super League, but also secure play-off qualification. “The last few weeks have been difficult for different reasons,” Powell accepted.
“You could look at us and say we are on a downward path but I honestly don’t feel like that. I feel like we are in a great position. We’ve played some really tough games over the last three weeks and there’s only the Saints game where we’d be hugely disappointed that we didn’t do ourselves justice.
“I feel like we are getting ready to go. We’ve got three games left of the regular season, we know we need to get going again and this is an important game in doing that. I am pretty confident with where we are at, the group’s in a great place mentally and I feel like we’ve handled losing consecutive games pretty well.”
He stressed: “We’ve got high standards and we want to win those games, but periods like this happen. We don’t get too carried away with winning three straight and we’re not going to do the opposite of that when we lose a few.”
Jay Pitts could return from a biceps injury to make his 450th career appearance in tomorrow’s game, refereed by Liam Rush. Tom Johnstone (knee), Mason Lino (calf muscle), and Isaiah Vagana (shoulder) are also back in contention and Jazz Tevaga is available following a one-match ban.
Wakefield Trinity: from Jowitt, Scott, Hall, Johnstone, Trueman, Lino, McMeeken, Smoothy, Rodwell, Tevaga, Pitts, Hamlin-Uele, Faatili, Smith, Vagana, Walmsley, Sinfield, Myers, Williams, Lipowicz, Lawford.
York Knights: from Mata’afa, Jones-Bishop, Wood, Galeano, Hingano, Harris, Martin, McShane, Vaughan, Dee, Thompson, Balmforth, Va’a, Field, Buchanan, Bennison, Foster, Hunter, Nofoaluma, Inman, Doyle.
Referee: Liam Rush (Dewsbury/Batley). Kick-off: Saturday, 5.30pm.