Wakefield duo to miss rest of season in double hammer injury blow

Wakefield Trinity have been dealt a significant double blow – with Oli Pratt and Matty Storton set to miss the remainder of the 2026 Super League season.

Pratt and Storton were both notable absentees from Wakefield’s 21-man squad that will face York Knights on Saturday afternoon, and Daryl Powell has now returned a grim prognosis on the pair.

Pratt will require surgery on his hamstring that will ensure he not only misses the rest of the season, but also the start of pre-season training for the 2027 campaign.

And Storton will be in a brace for three months after picking up a knee problem.

Wakefield suffer hammer double blow

Speaking on Friday morning, Powell confirmed the news on both Pratt and Storton.

He said: “They’re both out for the season. Oli needs an operation on his hamstring which is a reoccurrence of something. We knew there was a decent chance of it happening but we were hoping it wouldn’t be the case. That will keep him out for four months.

“He’ll get back in December some time into pre-season. He’s had a tough year with that injury and he hasn’t been able to get going. He’s a really high-quality player for us so it’s really tough for us and for him, but it is what it is.

“Matty is not an operation scenario but he’ll be in a brace for 10 to 12 weeks. He’s got an MCL injury in his knee. Every back rower that we have has been injured so it’s been challenging. I feel like the last couple of games, we’ve been unlucky with significant injuries in both games that have left us heavily depleted on the bench. Against the best teams, it’s pretty tough when that happens.”

Meanwhile, new signing Emre Guler has been left out as a precaution this weekend after picking up a slight injury on debut – but he will return next week.

Powell added: “Emre.. we thought it was a risk him playing last week and he’s picked up a minor groin injury. But it’s not too bad, I’d expect him to be fit next week. We want him to be available if and when we get into the play-offs so we’re being cautious with Emre this week.”

Powell targets return to winning ways

Wakefield are at risk of being sucked into a battle to confirm their spot in the top six, but Powell insists Trinity are determined to return to winning ways after suffering a run of losses.

He said: “We want to win all three. This is a period now where we’re setting ourselves up and we can’t be looking thinking, we need to win two out of three. We want to win every game and we want to get back on track. This week is the only opportunity we’ve got to do that so I’m not getting sidetracked thinking about stuff like that. We’re thinking about winning all three games.”

They face a York side on Saturday afternoon who Powell described as ‘competitive’ in their maiden Super League season.

He said: “York have been competitive all year and it blew out last week but Leeds can do that to anyone. I watched their game the week before against Warrington and they’ve been competitive. That game could have gone either way deep into it, it was still pretty close.”