Wakefield Trinity boss reveals three-fold injury hope as key men edge towards returns

Three Wakefield Trinity casualties are getting close to being back on the field, coach Daryl Powell has revealed.

Stand-off Jake Trueman returned from a back injury in last Sunday’s home defeat by Leigh Leopards and Powell has named an unchanged 21-man squad for Friday’s clash with visitors Wigan Warriors.

That means Trinity will again be without some of their most influential troops, particularly in the middle of the field, but Powell confirmed some of the long-term absentees are making good progress.

“Oli Russell still hasn’t got full strength in his broken hand, but he is training,” Powell said at his weekly preview press conference on Wednesday.

“He trained today, he is catching the ball and getting around, but he’s not in contact yet.

“He might be a couple of weeks, he needs to get strength in the hand before he can really get back into it.”

The coach added: “Ky Rodwell is going to be a while, I haven’t really got a time frame on him at the moment. He has had a couple of knee ops which he is recovering from.

“Tommy Doyle (foot) has had a bit of a setback and he may be a couple of weeks away, Renouf Atoni (torn calf muscle) is starting to run a little bit on the AlterG [anti-gravity treadmill], but Matty Storton (knee) is a while away. It was a big injury he had.”

Wakefield Trinity boss on Caleb Hamlin-Uele

Caleb Hamlin-Uele suffered nerve damage in an arm during Trinity’s golden-point extra-time loss at Catalans Dragons in April and Powell revealed: “He had a nerve conduction test yesterday so we are just trying to find out exactly what that means.

“The news is generally decent-ish. He needs to strengthen, he has lost a fair bit of muscle in his shoulder as a result of the nerve being bruised.

“That is going to take a bit of time to build back up. It is a pretty difficult injury to know when you’ll be right, so it can be frustrating for the player, but he may be the next back, with Tommy Doyle and Matty Russell.”

Powell reckons Trinity will be in good shape when they do get most of their casualties back.

“It is a tough contact sport and everyone has injuries, I just think we’ve got more than most at the moment,” he said.,

“I don’t know exactly when we’ll be able to put a full team out – you never know, because other injuries happen – but if we had another couple of middle-unit players at the moment, I think we’d be very tough to beat.

“I think we are tough to beat anyway, but we’d be exceptionally tough to beat if we had a couple of those guys available.

“I’d say in six weeks, if we stay on the same trajectory, we’ll be in a place where we look a fair bit stronger around that middle unit and that’d be pretty handy.”