Return date unknown for Wakefield Trinity's sidelined Bill Tupou

The Tonga centre pulled out of Thursday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final loss at Salford Red Devils during the warm-up having felt a twinge in a problematic hamstring injury.

Tupou, who was named on the wing, was unable to take to the field and was replaced by 18th man Ashley Gibson just minutes before kick-off.

It was the latest setback for Wakefield who had already seen leading try-scorer Ben Jones-Bishop withdraw on the eve of the game, while captain Danny Kirmond was also deemed to be unfit, too.

They subsequently fell 30-6 in disappointing fashion, recording back-to-back defeats having seen a seven-game winning run ended by Leeds Rhinos a week ago.

“I’ve been having a bit of trouble with the hamstring,” explained Tupou, with depleted Trinity already missing seven sidelined regulars.

“I did it against Leeds last Saturday so was carrying it into the game but was pretty much waiting to see how I was feeling in the warm-up.

“Obviously it wasn’t right. I’m not too sure how long I’ll be missing. I’m going to get it checked and we’ll see how it goes but we’ll just assess it from there.”

The former Canberra Raiders player said it was a bitter blow missing out on the semi-finals.

“It’s not good for the team but we can just keep our heads up and focus on Super League now,” he said, with Wakefield in fifth place, just two points behind Salford in second.

“Hopefully, we can come back with a win next week. We’re over at Hull FC on Friday and it’s a big one; they went to Salford and won last week so will be on the up. We’ll have to match them.”

Fourth-place Hull, of course, face leaders Castleford Tigers first in tomorrow’s last remaining Cup quarter-final meaning they will have a far shorter turnaround. Tupou, who has eight tries in 15 games this term, will hope to sort his hamstring issue by then having originally had problems with it after scoring a hat-trick in the win at Wigan last month.

He missed the next game, a 
34-24 league victory at Salford, but will now hope to make a swift recovery especially as he has already sat out three matches due to concussion.

Tupou, 26, admitted: “It is stop-start at the moment. It’s frustrating for me as I hate getting injured and watching the boys play.

“It’s not a good feeling so hopefully I can get right and get myself back in. We do have a lot of injuries but can’t blame that; Salford turned up and were better.”