Why Super League star linked with move away isn’t playing

Wakefield Trinity lost for the 10th week in a row to start the Super League season despite a valiant effort away at now league leaders the Wigan Warriors who won 22-6.

Trinity are doing it tough at the moment and what hasn’t helped them is the absence of key forward Kelepi Tanginoa who Mark Applegarth recently described as “one of the best players in the league.”

The forward has been in Wakefield’s last two 21-man squads but both times hasn’t played.

Speaking before the game against Wigan, Applegarth said on Tanginoa:

“It’s the same as last week, it’s 50/50. One thing we don’t want to do is bring him back too soon and be back at square one where we have a three month waiting period. We just want to be sure that when we do play him, he’s fully there.

“He’s trained really well this week so you could see him on Sunday.”

Then after the game, he explained why he again didn’t feature:

“He was 50/50 and maybe could have played but in the end common sense kicked in for me despite how tempting it was to play him.

“I am desperate to get him out on the field and playing but with week off this week that extra week or so will be massively beneficial.”

Interestingly, Tanginoa has recently been linked with long time admirers Warrington Wolves after they lost Thomas Mikaele to NRL side Gold Coast Titans.

Though Applegarth has been firm in his stance that the forward isn’t going anywhere and it does seem that an injury is the real reason for his absence and that nothing more is going on.