Wakefield Trinity forward suffers injury setback as Daryl Powell reveals plan for Castleford Tigers friendly

The prop, who played 28 games in Trinity's treble-winning season, has five weeks to get himself fit for the round one clash with Leeds Rhinos.

Atoni is due to travel with the rest of Powell's squad to Tenerife on Monday but will not train on the pre-season camp.

The trial game against Castleford on January 24 will round off a shortened pre-season programme for Wakefield, who faced the Rhinos in their only other friendly on Boxing Day.

"It's an important game for us so we'll name a pretty strong team," said Powell, whose side originally had another friendly planned against Bradford Bulls.

"If people are fit, they'll play in that game. We've got a couple of boys who have got knocks.

"Renouf Atoni won't play. He's picked up a bit of a calf injury. He'll be on the camp next week but won't be training.

"Apart from that, we look alright at the moment. We'll see how they get through a pretty tough week next week.

"I'm hoping we'll be pretty strong in the Cas game."

The friendly acts as a testimonial for former Castleford half-back Luke Gale.

The 36-year-old served the Tigers with distinction before helping Wakefield win three trophies last year.

Gale is now the head coach of Trinity's academy after calling time on his playing career but he has been keeping himself fit in preparation for his big night.

"He'll get five minutes," joked Powell.

"He's doing some bits with us at the moment with Myles Lawford being out and he's coming on the camp with us.

"He'll probably be a bit better tuned in than he might have been if he'd just been coaching."

Wakefield will have one more game before the start of the Super League season with top-flight clubs entering the Challenge Cup at the third-round stage this year.

Powell is hoping to avoid an amateur club in next Tuesday's draw.

"We could do with a strong Champ team because it's an important part of our preparation," he said.

"This year has been a short pre-season. It's been hard work in terms of the amount of time we've got and you generally get one week like this (the worst of the weather).

"We've had some adapted sessions this week and then go on camp next week. It's perfect prep and then we'll come back, play Cas and will be a couple of weeks away from that Challenge Cup game.

"We're getting right to the pointy end of it now which is great."