Chester gives update on Jones-Bishop return

Wakefield head coach Chris Chester has given an update on the return of star winger Ben Jones-Bishop.

The 31-year-old is yet to feature in 2020 after being diagnosed with a career-threatening blood clot on his lungs during pre-season.

He has spent the past eight months receiving treatment and recovering and Chester hopes to have him back training – and possibly playing – within the next few weeks.

“He gets a (Covid-19) test today or tomorrow I think,” Chester said at his press conference on Wednesday. “It’s a bit too much just to throw him in (this weekend).

“Having said that we need him in the squad but we’ll see what condition Bish comes back in on Friday and make a call then.

“We’re glad to have him back within the playing group and we’ll see him over the next week or so.”

His return would be a huge boost for Chester’s squad, who have suffered a further blow with the news that three players from their opponents last week, Catalans, tested positive for Covid-19, with track and trace analysis forcing Alex Walker, Jay Pitts and Liam Kay to be stood down to self-isolate.

Prop David Fifita has also since been stood down indefinitely after refusing to wear track and trace GPS equipment.

It means Wakefield are without 12 key men for this weekend’s trip to Warrington but Chester has conceded it is simply a sign of the times.

He added: “We’ve obviously lost three important guys to the team, one real leader as well. But we’ve got other guys that are champing at the bit to play and they’ve been a bit unlucky not to get a game over the last two or three weeks.

“We’ve just got to get on with it. There’s no point whinging and moaning.

“I thought looking at last week’s game we took some big strides forward. We played well in patches, we defended a lot tougher. One pleasing thing for me is that they stuck up for themselves as well.

“They (Warrington) are one of the best teams in the competition. They like to play and throw the ball around but they’re a team who we got the better of at the start of the season.”