{"id":559416,"date":"2026-04-30T21:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/559416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T21:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:29:14","slug":"wakefield-trinity-boss-explains-tom-johnstone-injury-as-squad-admission-made-ahead-of-leeds-rhinos-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/559416\/","title":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity boss explains Tom Johnstone injury as squad admission made ahead of Leeds Rhinos clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell has cleared up the injury to Tom Johnstone and admitted his squad is a \u2018bit skinny\u2019 for Friday\u2019s crunch Super League clash with Leeds Rhinos.<\/p>\n

Trinity have been forced into a number of changes and that\u2019s seen them name three academy players who are yet to make their senior debut in the 21-man squad.<\/a> Charlie Abraham has been present in recent weeks but Robbie Brook and Zack Clegg have also been added.<\/p>\n

Tom Johnstone is one of those who has dropped out of the squad having missed out last week and Powell has now confirmed that the England international has been suffering with an ankle issue, but should not be a long-term absentee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just had a jab in his ankle area that hopefully has settled down,\u201d Powell told media, including Serious About Rugby League.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had a couple of problems with his knee and his ankle. There\u2019s nothing major, but look, he\u2019s an unbelievable athlete and we need to make sure he\u2019s right. We don\u2019t want to put him out there and then it extends to something that\u2019s more serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake Connor\u2019s World Cup chances, Brian McDermott reaction & Leeds Rhinos early title favourites \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Wakefield Trinity boss set for key spine call<\/p>\n

Powell confirmed that full-back Max Jowitt, who is also missing from the 21-man squad and has missed out in recent weeks, has a similar problem in regards the club wanting to protect him from further injury.<\/p>\n

The Trinity boss said: \u201cIt\u2019s the same with Max, really. Max has got a bit of an Achilles problem that\u2019s causing him trouble and he\u2019s proving difficult to clear up at the moment. There\u2019s no hoodwinking or anything, we\u2019ve just got a couple of boys who have niggly bits at the moment that are keeping them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That pair, alongside Seth Nikotemo (HIA), should be back after the Challenge Cup break with Powell explaining: \u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019ve got a couple of real tough games on the spin and couple of our real high-quality players are missing, but that\u2019s the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for who could play in his halves this week given the fact Mason Lino has returned from another of the aforementioned niggly injuries, Powell confirmed a decision has already been made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a call I\u2019ve already made that I\u2019m not going to make public. Jack\u2019s been playing pretty well for us, Mason\u2019s had a couple of little bits injury-wise but we\u2019ve had a good week of training.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get it exactly right this week from a team perspective with what we\u2019ve got available. We\u2019re a little bit skinny this week, there\u2019s a few young boys in the squad there, so that\u2019s reflective of where we\u2019re at from a fitness point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leeds Rhinos are expected to name the same 17 for the fifth week in a row at Headingley on Friday night and the Wakefield boss is more than aware of the fact that Trinity are up against ti.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s potential for a couple,\u201d he said regarding changes, adding: \u201cWe\u2019ve got a few players missing this week, so it\u2019s a tough challenge against a team that\u2019s got everybody fit and they\u2019re the team of the comp at the moment, so we know what we\u2019ve got to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell has cleared up the injury to Tom Johnstone and admitted his squad is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-559416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}