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Mark Applegarth has his say on Wakefield pitch after constant criticism

Wakefield Trinity’s pitch has been heavily criticised all season.

It all started after their Round One defeat against Catalans Dragons when Steve McNamara said:

“It was a pretty tough game on a pitch that took skin of your legs. The boys there, their legs are red raw. It’s an issue. It’s an issue for Wakefield moving forward for their players. I haven’t seen anything like that before in terms of the blisters and blood that’s in there off that field there.”

When asked if he was a fan, he said: “No I’m not a fan, not if that’s the outcome. If the outcome is that, then definitely. It’s going to create issues I’m sure. We haven’t got to play on it again but they have to play on it every other week.

“I didn’t quite realise it was like that before we came. We’d seen pictures but it’s an issue.”

He then stated: “That’s the worst dressing room I’ve seen for skin taken off legs without a doubt.”

After that there was a big question mark over the pitch and inspections before their games against Huddersfield Giants and Hull KR.

However, then Catalans star Mitchell Pearce has said that there is “something seriously wrong” with the pitch saying that some players are still carrying cuts from that game.

He said on the Bench podcast: “There’s some rough fields out there, they could fix up that Wakefield field ASAP. There’s something seriously wrong with it, after the game some of the boys have still got scabs on their legs and it was about 10 weeks ago.”

However, the pitch now looks in brilliant condition and Wakefield boss Mark Applegarth has praised it on BBC Radio Leeds.

“The lads seem pretty happy with it training this morning,” he said.

“Credit to the groundsman and the company that’s been working with him, they’ve done a lot of extra work to recover the surface.

“You just can’t compare it to where it was six weeks ago, give it two to four more weeks of this and I think it will be an excellent surface.”

He also revealed when star player Max Jowitt could return after he was injured in Round One.

“He’s down for Catalans away which is the 26th if I’m right.

“He’s back running now and is doing his straight line running so hopefully we can progress him to changing direction soon.

“He’s looking really good and really sharp.

“I can’t wait to get him back and hopefully that will cause some more selection headaches in terms of our attacking strike.”

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