Wakefield Wildcats left with injury worries over Smith and Raleigh following St Helens defeat

Wildcats lost the game 42-12 at Langtree Park but head coach Richard Agar was more concerned by injuries to Tim Smith and Andy Raleigh.

Smith left the pitch after 15 minutes with a leg injury and Raleigh, on his first outing of the close season, suffered rib cartilage damage.

Both could miss the start of the Super League season but Agar is keeping everything crossed that the injuries are not as bad as first feared.

“Tim Smith is going for an x-ray and at the moment it may well be an all or nothing injury,” said Agar.

“He may well have broken his leg or it may well be just bruising but he’s struggling on it at the moment.

“He’ll get x-rayed as soon as we get back tonight and we’ll get the results from that. He lasted about 15 minutes and he’s struggling. It’s the lower part of his leg, his tibia, so we’re going to see if there’s a crack in there.

“Andy Raleigh in his first game back has rib cartilages as well. As most people that have had them they will know they are painful and difficult to get about on. We will assess him and that’s not good news.”

Wakefield have already lost Kyle Wood for the start of the campaign through an eye injury while Oliver Wilkes is currently sidelined with a thumb injury.

Wildcats were well beaten in their penultimate pre-season trial match at Saints, in what was Jon Wilkin’s testimonial game.

Tries from James Roby, Willie Manu and Paul Wellens gave Saints a 16-6 half-time lead, with Isaac John replying for Wildcats.

Lance Hohaia, Ade Gardner (2), Wellens and Lee Gaskell also crossed for Nathan Brown’s men in the second half as Saints continued to call the tune.

Lee Smith completed the scoring with a late consolation try for Wakefield.

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