Bill Tupou suffers injury setback as Wakefield Trinity lose another to friendly fire

Wakefield Trinity’s Liam Kay has been sidelined by “friendly fire” and Bill Tupou has suffered a setback after his return from a serious knee injury. Utility player Kay will miss Sunday’s Super League game against Hull FC after hurting an ankle in training.

“Liam Kay got injured this week but we don’t know the severity of that,” said head coach Willie Poching “He just got a bit of friendly fire in training. He took a knock and fell down in the act of trying to pass the ball. It can happen when the boys are training at an intense level. Fingers crossed, we’re hoping for the best with that.”

Star centre Tupou, 31, made his long-awaited return from a ruptured patella tendon in Friday’s reserve fixture against Hull. It was his first game since last June but the Aucklander won’t be considered for the Super League meeting with the same opponents this weekend.

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Poching explained: “He trained really well leading up to last week and he’s one of the guys who the reserve grade game was really important for. We were all excited to see Bill out there. We could see the glimpses of his class in training leading up to it.

“And he was able to come train with the team, get his hands on the ball and show what he can do. He got through the reserve grade game. (But) he took a little bit of a knock on the knee and had a bit of a reaction to it.

“It’s not too bad. It’s something we expected. But we’ll see how he pulls up in the next week or two. He won’t play this weekend. We won’t rush him. He’s been out for almost a year which is a long time. So he’s got to build some muscle memory back up, and some skill back up and some confidence back up.”

England winger Tom Johnstone also