Wakefield Trinity Wildcats coach Chris Chester has confirmed that he could get as many as four key players back this weekend for their Challenge Cup semi-final with Warrington: but that has been offset by the news that three men who played at the weekend could be missing.
Chester will definitely be without Bill Tupou, with doubts also over Jonny Molloy and Matty Ashurst following the defeat to Castleford on Sunday.
However, fears over an injury to Mikey Sio have been cooled after Chester told TotalRL he will play at the weekend – with some big names also set to come into Chester’s 19-man squad for the game at Leigh on Saturday afternoon.
“Mikey is going to be good to play,” he said.
“Bill Tupou has torn his hamstring so he’ll be out for a couple of weeks, and Jonny Molloy has torn his pectoral muscle, so that’s come as a loss to us all. However, we’ve got Kirmo (Danny Kirmond), Ben Jones-Bishop and Scott Anderson all potentially back this week, which eases the pain a little bit.
“Scott Moore will be thrown straight back in too which is a huge boost. It’ll be good to have that rotation between him and Mikey.”
On Ashurst, who suffered a break to his jaw during that Castleford game, Chester has revealed there is still a chance he could play despite the severity of his injury – and says a call won’t be made until the very last moment, adding that they will be guided by Ashurst’s own take on the injury.
“He’s going to see a specialist tonight,” Chester said.
“The x-ray has come back saying that there is a break, but it isn’t displaced. If I was a betting man, I’d say he won’t play at the weekend but we want to give him as much time as possible. We’ll be pain led by Matty; we’ll see what things are said by the specialist – although we won’t decide until Saturday morning.
It looks like the surgeon isn’t going to operate so that means it’ll just be rest. It could be a four-week healing process but we’ll wait and see to if potentially any more damage could be called.”
