Wakefield Trinity winger Tom Johnstone out for up to six weeks as coach Chris Chester keeps his options open

Johnstone, who battled back from two anterior cruciate ligament injuries in three years, damaged an arm during last Sunday’s 23-22 loss to Wigan Warriors.

That did not prevent him scoring a spectacular try which took his tally to six in seven games this year.

But he has not been included in Trinity’s initial 21-man squad for Saturday’s Betfred Super League clash with Catalans Dragons at St Helens and Chester said the 24-year-old will see a specialist on Friday.

“We’ll get an opinion then on whether he needs surgery or not,” Chester confirmed.

“We’re hopeful it doesn’t require surgery and he’s probably looking at four to six weeks.

“It was the elbow he did - a lot depends on Tom’s pain threshold, but we’re looking at four to six weeks best-case scenario.”

Johnstone played on despite suffering the injury in the first half, but Chester said that did not make the problem worse.

“The damage had already been done,” he stressed.

“The strapping he had in place meant he couldn’t bend it in the game and he took his try fantastically well.

“He managed to get through the game and we’re quite hopeful it doesn’t require any type of surgery.”

Matty Ashurst, Jordan Crowther, Jack Croft, Lee Kershaw and Ryan Hampshire have all been called into the squad for Saturday and Joe Westerman is also in contention.

Chester said: “People like Joe Westerman and Jordy Crowther didn’t play last week as they weren’t 100 per cent injury-wise - Jordy with a knee/hamstring and Joe just needed some more rehab on his knee.

“They’ll definitely come into consideration, Matty Ashurst obviously comes back into the 17 and we’ll leave a couple of players until [Friday] before making a decision on them.

“But I’ve said whoever is not 100 per cent fit won’t be involved at the weekend.

“We’ve got some guys waiting with a clean bill of health so there’s good competition for places.”

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