Wakefield Trinity might have grabbed themselves a Challenge Cup quarter-final spot but it could have come at a cost with a trio of injuries.
Trinity beat Huddersfield Giants 22-12 at the John Smith’s Stadium in front of around 2,000 travelling supporters.
However, head coach Daryl Powell shared his thoughts post-match on those injuries and how he plans to manage his squad should they be missing going forward.
He said: “We don’t know what we’ll get out of this in terms of injuries and there’s potentially a couple of medium to long-termers there with what we’ve got today but we’ll wait and see what happens next week with that.”
Fullback Max Jowitt and forward Matty Storton both went off in the first half and Isaiah Vagana also picked up a shoulder knock.
The Wakefield Trinity boss didn’t have too much information but all three will get scans during the week.
On Jowitt’s injury, he said: “Well, it doesn’t look great, to be honest, but we don’t know until we get a scan.
“He came off in a bit of pain and he’s in a boot so we’ll get him checked out.
“It’s his leg, I don’t know quite where but it’s the lower part of his leg so we’ll get a scan and keep our fingers crossed.”
Jowitt has been one of Wakefield’s top performers in 2025 so he would be a massive miss for Trinity, however, they do have Josh Rourke waiting in the wings to fill the fullback role and Powell believes he would do a good job if called upon.
He added: “He’s been outstanding, he’s been a top performer for us and he’s our quality fullback.
“Look what happened to Wigan yesterday, it does make a big difference to your team but we signed Josh Rourke in the close season.
“He showed at London that he’s a decent fullback, he’s got plenty of quality about him so he’ll get an opportunity and he’s been waiting for that so he has to step up and do a good job for us.”
Storton felt pain behind his knee and didn’t return to the side and Vagana picked up a shoulder knock in the victory over Huddersfield.
Wakefield Trinity boss Powell did mention that prop Ky Rodwell should be available for next week’s game against Hull FC as well as five or six other players who weren’t available for the Cup fixture.
Powell praised his halfback duo Mason Lino and Jake Trueman for controlling the game in the second half and admitted that it takes time for players to gel together.
He added: “We’ve started growing and developing as a team, we still don’t know exactly the team that we are, we have 10 new players, and we’re early in the season.
“I think we’re managing ourselves pretty well and we’re really competitive in all the games we’ve played we’ve been in.”
He was excited at the prospect of back-to-back Wembley trips but said they would be taking it a game at a time.
He finished: “Everybody’s motivated by going to Wembley, we did it last year in the 1895 Cup.
“Whilst it’s a little bit different, it’s still playing in the iconic stadium and it feels special so for players to get that opportunity, it doesn’t happen too much really.”
