Wakefield Trinity boss Chris Chester buoyed by team’s improvement but still shaken by injury to Hull KR’s Mose Masoe

Masoe was hurt making a tackle during the second minute of Trinity’s 18-6 win at Mobile Rocket Stadium, Belle Vue and underwent surgery at Leeds General Infirmary that night.

Trinity players and staff have been keeping close tabs on the Samoan international forward’s condition during their warm-weather camp in Spain, which began the day after the game.

“It is devastating for the kid,” Chester said.

“It is terrible, it puts everything into perspective when things like that happen.

“We don’t want to see people getting seriously injured in our game.

“We wish him all the best and hopefully he makes a full recovery.”

Chester, a former Rovers coach, praised the Rugby League Benevolent Fund who have funded flights from Down Under for Masoe’s family.

He added: “Our medical people have been keeping in close contact with the medical people at Hull KR.

“It is really sad, it was something and nothing, he just ran into his own player.

“A big fella like that doesn’t stay down for no reason.

“Everybody is really saddened by what happened.”

The injury overshadowed what Chester felt was an encouraging performance by Trinity and an improvement on the 30-4 Christmas loss at Leeds Rhinos..

He reflected: “It was a good, solid performance from our guys.

“I thought we defended really tough.

“They were camped down on our tryline for 12 sets in the last 20 minutes when we had the kids out there and we showed some real grit.

“The result was irrelevant, the important thing was we made some improvements from Boxing Day.

“We weren’t despondent after Boxing Day and we’re certainly not getting too excited after the weekend.”

“Hull KR were a little bit off, we were a bit off at times and we’ll be a lot better for that outing.”