Daryl Powell confirms Wakefield Trinity star set for another lay-off

Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell has revealed a key player will miss the club’s home clash with Salford Red Devils on Sunday.

Stand-off Jake Trueman is undergoing treatment on a long-term back problem and has returned to the casualty list after a one-match comeback earlier this month.

The former Hull FC play-maker featured for the first time since March when Trinity beat another of his former clubs, Castleford Tigers, at Magic Weekend on May 4.

That was only his fourth appearance of the season and he didn’t play in last Sunday’s 40-10 thrashing of Warrington Wolves, despite being in the initial 21-man squad.

Speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Thursday), Trinity boss Powell confirmed Trueman won’t feature for Wakefield against Salford.

Wakefield Trinity star suffers re-occurrence of back injury

Trinity then visit Rhinos for a BBC-televised Betfred Super League clash on Saturday, May 31 and have the following weekend off when the competition breaks for the Challenge Cup final.

“He has still got this on-going back issue,” Powell explained. “He has had some treatment, a couple of jabs in his back and we are hoping that’s going to resolve pretty soon.

“I haven’t got any news on that at the moment, but he won’t play this week. Hopefully he will be in and around it [after that].

“We play Leeds and then there’s the Challenge Cup so we’ll see how he comes through that period.”

Trueman’s Tigers career was ended by an anterior cruciate ligament injury midway through the 2022 season.

That and an Achilles problem disrupted his time at Hull, limiting him to just 26 games, but asked if he has long-term fears over the 26-year-old’s fitness, Powell insisted: “I don’t think so. It’s just something that has reared its head and we are hopeful this treatment is going to fix it up.”