WARRINGTON Wolves are suffering something of a forward shortage heading into Sunday’s Super League clash at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.

Ashton Sims joined Ben Currie and Anthony England on The Wire’s suspended list, while George King’s elbow injury in the win against Wigan could sideline him for up to six weeks.

With James Laithwaite, Simon Grix and Ben Evans also long-term absentees, Tony Smith will have to shuffle his pack and may look to utility man Stefan Ratchford to do a job at loose forward.

Daryl Clark is another option, but with Brad Dwyer impressing as an impact hooker the reigning Man of Steel could stay as the starting nine.

Smith, the club’s head of coaching and rugby, will give Sam Wilde another taste of senior action, while fellow Academy prospect Harvey Livett remains an option.

However Smith does expect to welcome centre Toby King and the versatile Gary Wheeler back into his squad for Sunday’s game, kick off 3pm.

“Losing five of them all within a couple of weeks of each other has hurt us,” said Smith. “But on the positive side we’ll have three returning from suspension for the midweek game (against St Helens).

“We’ll be using Toby King and Gaz Wheeler somewhere, but we’re not quite sure yet as we haven’t finalised the team.

“Toby’s been able to rehabilitate very quickly and it’s looking positive. He’s not certain but we’ll run the eye over him this week.

“Harvey Livett could be there if needed, we’re down on troops but he’s a possibility of joining in as he’s been training with us for the past few weeks.

“Sam will be there and I’m looking forward to seeing another display from him. He more than held his own there the other day. He was outstanding, terrific.”

Smith is playing down a first meeting as head coaches between him and brother Brian, but says the new Wakefield boss has had a positive impact since arriving at Belle Vue.

“I won’t make a big deal of it,” said Smith. “It’s another game for Warrington that we need to perform in and that’s as far as it goes for me.

“He’s brought in a number of players and that’s changed the look of the team. He’s used two different teams over the past two games and come up with performances.

“They’re hit by injury as well but have some fresh faces and we’re down on troops, so it’ll be a difficult game for us.

“It’s a difficult place to play. They know their pitch very well and play well when they’re on it. We’ll have to be on our best when we go there.”

Meanwhile, Chris Bridge had surgery on a sports hernia on Friday but James Laithwaite is yet to have his ankle operation due to swelling.