Wakefield Trinity are awaiting a full assessment of the worrying leg injury star second rower Kelepi Tanginoa picked up during the last match of the season.
The Australian star is set to form a cornerstone of next year’s team as Trinity coach Willie Poching tries to avoid another survival scrap.
Signed from Manly Sea Eagles in 2019, Tanginoa penned a contract extension to the end of 2024 at the end of his second season in West Yorkshire.
He had just made the Super League Dream team, and represented the Combined Nations All Stars against England in both 2021 and this year.
Tanginoa has also played for Parramatta Eels and North Queensland Cowboys, totalling 32 games for his three NRL clubs.
The 28-year-old was forced off during the second half of Wakefield’s 16-14 defeat at Huddersfield, having earlier scored one of his side’s three tries.
It was a first loss in five games for Trinity, who were bottom of the table with seven to go.
They won five of them to consign Toulouse to the drop, but have lost a string of players, including Castleford-linked halfback and skipper Jacob Miller.
Winger Tom Johnstone is moving to Catalans Dragons and second row James Batchelor and prop Yusuf Aydin to Hull KR.
Meanwhile popular Australian David Fifita and fellow forward, Cook Island international Tinirau Arona, have both departed.
Jorge Taufua, the Tonga and Samoa winger signed from Manly in July, is recovering from a broken arm sustained in only his second Wakefield game.
Long-serving second rower Matty Ashurst, an ever-present, landed the club’s Man of Steel award at its annual presentation evening.
Australian prop Jai Whitbread was named both coaches’ and fans’ player of the year, while threequarter Corey Hall took the young player of the year prize.
Trinity’s second-string face Wigan in the Reserves Championship Grand Final at Robin Park Arena on Sunday (noon).
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