WAKEFIELD coach Chris Chester says he has just 17 players available for tonight’s Super League home game against champions St Helens after further Covid-19 disruption.

With 10 players on the injury list, Chester was only able to name a 19-man squad and he revealed at his press conference today that one of them is injured and the other has been forced to stand down due to Covid protocols.

“We’ve had major disruption,” he said. “We’ve had to stand one player down for 10 days after a positive test and we’ve sent another player home this morning.

“So there’s obviously something lingering around, the Under-19s have had some issues as well.

“We can fulfil our fixtures. We’re literally down to 17 players for tomorrow’s game. I know I named 19 but one of them is injured and one has had to be stood down.

“It’s tough at the minute. Everyone is going through it.

“But we were proud of what we did last year in fulfilling all our fixtures and we’re certainly going to try and do that again this year.”

Among the injured players is England winger Tom Johnstone, who has undergone knee surgery.

“Tom went for an operation on Tuesday,” Chester said. “Fortunately for us it’s the best-case scenario because it was a clean-out and we’re probably looking at, top end, four to six weeks.”