Chris Chester coy on future of Wakefield forward Chris Annakin

Drew Darbyshire 03 Aug 2019 11:50 AM

Wakefield coach Chris Chester admitted forward Chris Annakin has not yet got a contract for 2020 but has been impressed with his recent performances.

Annakin has found chances limited at Trinity this season, making just five appearances. He has played 12 games for Championship club Dewsbury on dual-registration in 2019.

The 28-year-old prop is off-contract with Wakefield at the end of this year but Chester has been pleased with his recent displays.

Speaking after their 26-6 defeat at St Helens on Friday, Chester commented: “I thought Chris Annakin was fantastic.

“He’s got that toughness about him, he’s only small but he’s got a big heart. He wanted to get off the line and whack a few people. I was pretty impressed with Chris, he’s worked for a chance and I thought he was probably our standout player.

“I don’t know yet [if he will be offered a new contract]. He’s not got one as we speak now but we are fighting for survival now and everyone should be working really hard over the next five weeks to make sure that we’ve all got a job at the end of the season.

“They are all cup finals for us from now until the end of the season. We are in a tough spot but if they players keep working hard like they did against Saints then I’m sure we will get out of this tough spot we are in.”

Chester revealed a deal fell through for an unnamed player to join the club during the week, but the club are still scouring the transfer market ahead of Friday’s UK transfer deadline.

He added: “We are going to have to bring in some faces.

“We copped another couple of knocks tonight and I only had 18 available players for the game. We’ve potentially lost Reece Lyne to a hamstring injury, Kirmo [Danny Kirmond] to a shoulder problem and we’ve got ongoing injury issues with a couple of players.

“We are going to try and bring someone in. It’s pretty critical now that we try and bring in some fresh bodies. We thought we had got someone over the line during the week but that didn’t come into fruition, so we will try again on Monday.

“We are fairly confident that Jacob Miller, Pauli Pauli and James Batchelor will be back next week. If we can get one body or two bodies in then that would be fantastic.”