{"id":791866,"date":"2026-10-04T17:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791866\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T17:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:18:16","slug":"tom-johnstone-casts-world-cup-doubt-after-revealing-injury-battles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791866\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Johnstone casts World Cup doubt after revealing injury battles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wakefield Trinity<\/a> winger Tom Johnstone admits he is unsure if he will be fit enough to represent England in the Rugby League World Cup this autumn.<\/p>\n

Johnstone capped off a remarkable season with a try and the man of the match award in Saturday night\u2019s Super League Grand Final, helping Wakefield become champions of England for the first time since 1968.<\/p>\n

Attention now turns to the World Cup for a number of players, with Brian McDermott set to reveal his final squad for the tournament on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

But it is seemingly unclear whether or not Johnstone will be involved.<\/p>\n

Tom Johnstone casts doubt on World Cup fitness<\/p>\n

Speaking in the aftermath of the Grand Final in the Old Trafford mixed zone, Johnstone revealed he has been playing with a number of injury issues in the latter part of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

He will now consult with Wakefield\u2019s medical team and get a detailed analysis on whether he needs to undergo surgery to fix one or more of those problems.<\/p>\n

That could end his hopes of featuring in the tournament for England, he conceded.<\/p>\n

When asked on Saturday night if he was hopeful of the call from McDermott, Johnstone said: \u201cYeah, I hope so, but you know, I\u2019m carrying a few things with my body. I\u2019ve been getting patched up week to week in order to get this done and I\u2019ve had my sole priority fixed on this. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll enjoy myself tonight and then I\u2019ll have a bit of a chat with Matty Crowther (Wakefield\u2019s physio) about whether, you know, we need to intervene and fix some things. So it\u2019s one of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll I\u2019ve had my mind set on all year is England and winning a Super League trophy \u2013 but if England is not to be, then it\u2019s not to be because I need to get myself ready for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnstone reveals Grand Final emotion<\/p>\n

Perhaps understandably given his deep bond with the club, the Wakefield winger was overcome with emotion on Saturday evening after Trinity\u2019s historic triumph.<\/p>\n

A loser at Old Trafford earlier in his career with Catalans Dragons, Johnstone admitted the relief of securing a winner\u2019s ring at last was made extra special because it was with the club he cares so much about.<\/p>\n

He admitted: \u201cObviously along the years it\u2019s become a dream. I\u2019ve wanted it for a long, long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had to wait for it a bit but the 31-year-old has managed to get it done. I\u2019m over the moon. When I lost here, I watched Wigan celebrate and said, \u2018One day I\u2019ll do that\u2019. It\u2019s been a bit mad \u2013 the second we did it, I couldn\u2019t stop crying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the excitement and now it\u2019s just a bit of shock. I\u2019m a bit shell-shocked, really. I\u2019m going through all the emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity winger Tom Johnstone admits he is unsure if he will be fit enough to represent England…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791866","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\/791866","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=791866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}