Mark Applegarth's message to Wakefield Trinity players as he provides Romain Franco injury update

Trinity gave themselves hope of escaping the drop with a first win of the season over Leeds Rhinos, only to go down to Hull KR in their next fixture.

Last week's defeat was compounded by a shock win for Castleford Tigers against Warrington Wolves as Andy Last's side restored their six-point advantage at the bottom.

It has left Wakefield with it all to do in the final 11 rounds but Applegarth is not getting drawn into the highs and lows of a relegation battle.

"We've just got to focus on ourselves," he said.

"If you get too caught up in the emotion of it all, you take your eye off the ball.

"We've got to make sure we know exactly what we need to do, which is win a minimum of three games without Castleford picking up another.

"We're bottom of the table and have got our own little mountain to climb before we start peeking over the top looking at what else is out there."

Wakefield's cause has not been helped by an ongoing injury crisis that leaves Applegarth without 10 first-teamers for tomorrow's clash with Salford Red Devils.

The Trinity boss is still waiting to discover the extent of injuries sustained by Romain Franco and Morgan Smith at Craven Park.

"Romain has had a shoulder scan today," said Applegarth, who is hopeful of getting Kevin Proctor, Mason Lino and Jai Whitbread back for next week's game against Wigan Warriors.

"He got a pretty nasty-looking shoulder injury but he's had an X-ray and there's no break.

"The scan results should tell us the extent of that but he's not playing this week.

"Morgan Smith has got some damage to the ligaments in his foot. He's had a scan today as well so hopefully that will be good news."

Salford have injury problems of their own ahead of the trip to Belle Vue with Marc Sneyd the last man standing in Paul Rowley's first-choice spine.

Applegarth expects Salford to be as expansive as ever despite being without Brodie Croft, Ryan Brierley and Andy Ackers.

"They've got some quality players out there still," said Applegarth.

"I'm a big fan of Paul Rowley and how he plays the game – Salford play rugby the way it's meant to be played.

"They have got some key players out and anybody would feel it but we're expecting a tough task and that they're not going to go too far away from their DNA."