Wakefield winger Damien Blanch will miss the start of the season after breaking his hand in the Boxing Day defeat by Leeds at Headingley.

It was Blanch’s first game back after missing the second half of the 2009 engage Super League campaign following a knee reconstruction operation.

Blanch underwent surgery on his hand injury today (Wednesday) and is expected to be out of action for between eight and ten weeks.

John Kear, the Wildcats’ Head Coach, said: “It’s a blow for both Damien and the Wildcats because he has worked so hard to recover from his reconstruction operation.

“It’s just one of those of things that can happen in a collision sport like Rugby League.  From what we saw from Damien during that first 40 minutes against the Rhinos once he’s got the operation over and the rehabilitation programme behind him, I’m certain he’ll back on form for us in Super League. “

The Wildcats also suffered injuries to hooker Terry Newton and prop Kyle Bibb in the Cravendale Challenge.

Newton will be out of action for two weeks after suffering a calf muscle tear while Bibb is ruled out for four weeks with a knee ligament injury.

Kear said: “The good news is that both Terry and Kyle will be fit for the start of our Super League programme. We took Terry off during the Leeds game as a precaution and that limited the effect of the tear.

“Playing Leeds on Boxing Day was a very useful exercise because it revealed things that we need to fix before the start of the season.

“But there were some disappointments for us too and we shall go to work on those issues.”

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats face Harlequins RL at the Twickenham Stoop in the opening weekend of the engage Super League on Saturday, 30th January 2010.