Wakefield Trinity injury blow confirmed as star duo ruled out

Wakefield Trinity have lost a key player for around 10 weeks, coach Daryl Powell has revealed.

Australian forward Ky Rodwell has joined the casualty list for the second time this season after picking up a “decent injury to his knee” during last Thursday’s comeback win at home to Castleford Tigers.

Powell confirmed another forward, Seth Nikotemo, will also miss Saturday’s French test at Catalans Dragons and stand-off Jake Trueman is not yet ready to return from his lengthy injury layoff.

“He got a sort of shunt on his lower leg which has caused a fair bit of damage in his knee,” Powell said of Rodwell, who was sidelined by hamstring damage earlier in the campaign.

“He is likely to be out for 10ish weeks. It’s disappointing, pretty tough to take for Ky. He has already had a medium-term injury this season, then he was just getting back to feeling good about himself on the field and now he gets another big big injury, so that’s a tough one.”

Wakefield Trinity boss gives updates on Seth Nikotemo and Jake Trueman

The news about Nikotemo isn’t quite as bad. The second-rower, who recently made his comeback from a pre-season hand injury, was also hurt against Tigers and Powell said: “He got an injury to his ribs, which I don’t think is too bad. He popped a rib cartilage and can’t play this week, but should be available next week.”

Trueman has been battling to shake off a back injury and the coach revealed he won’t be in Saturday’s squad, but could come into contention to face Tigers at Magic Weekend, eight days later.

He said: “He is looking a lot better, the way he is moving. Hopefully he will be available next week.

“We have got a couple of options to move the team around a bit [on Saturday], but we aren’t going to be too far off what we had last week, squad-wise.”