Lewis Murphy injury adds to Wakefield Trinity's early season woes

Trinity were left sweating over a knee injury picked up by Murphy in the 8-0 defeat to Huddersfield Giants last Friday. The flying winger, who has been attracting interest from Australia, was forced off in the first half after initially trying to run the injury off.

The club was hoping it would not mean a long lay-off after they have already had several first team players on the treatment table since the Super League campaign started.

But scans have confirmed the severity of the injury, which will rule the youngster out for the rest of the 2023 season.

“We are all really disappointed for Lewis and it’s a cruel blow,” said head coach Mark Applegarth.

“Everyone at the club will support him through his rehab and I know he will be relentless in coming back better than ever in 2024.”

Applegarth is also resigned to being without his first choice full-back Max Jowitt for up to three months after he suffered an ankle injury that has required surgery.

Wakefield were without centre Reece Lyne and forward Kelepi Tanginoa too for last week’s game and with their squad not big on numbers losing a key player like Murphy is a hammer blow.

Wakefield Trinity boss refusing to panic despite losing start to Super League season

Following the loss to the Giants, Applegarth has been left to pick the bones out of another defeat with Trinity still winless after three matches, but he was pleased with aspects of the latest display.

"The effort is there," he said.

"We asked for a response to last week and we definitely got that. Sometimes you've just got to tip your hat and say you got beat by a better team.

"I thought how Huddersfield stuck to the game plan and strangled us through our own errors and kept putting us in corners and capitalising on our mistakes, you've got to say 'fair play'.

"Congratulations to Huddersfield. We just lost to the better team on the evening."

Leeds Rhinos are next up tomorrow night (Friday) with Applegarth already holding a win over them in the traditional Boxing Day match. But he knows this will be a different level with their opponents coming into the game on a high after beating world champions St Helens last week.