Castleford Tigers set to worry over Gareth Widdop

With Gareth Widdop expected to have played his last game for Warrington Wolves, the worry about his current devastating injury will fall on the shoulders of Castleford Tigers.

The Tigers have been heavily linked with a move for Widdop for the past month with head coach Lee Radford a big admirer of the former St George Illawarra Dragons playmaker.

However, in Warrington’s emphatic 36-10 win over Catalans Dragons at the Magic Weekend, Widdop unfortunately dislocated his shoulder in the act of scoring.

Credit to the England star who continued to finish off his try despite the excruciating pain etched across his face.

With that dislocated shoulder, it is likely his season and therefore career at the Halliwell Jones Stadium is over before he moves on to pastures new as part of Daryl Powell’s big rebuild at the Cheshire club.

However, this dislocation to his right shoulder is the fourth time he has suffered that injury in just four years, with Warrington boss Powell explaining that it took ten minutes to get the shoulder back into place.

That means that the Tigers will be getting a player whose weakness in his right shoulder cannot be underestimated.

Back in 2019, Widdop was forced to have surgery on the shoulder which ruled him out of England’s Test with New Zealand, but he suffered yet another dislocation whilst playing for the Dragons.

That was the third time in the space of 12 months that the Halifax-born playmaker had suffered the same injury, and, at 33 years of age, he will be hoping that it will be his last as he potentially searches for the final contract of his playing career.

Widdop began that illustrious career at Melbourne Storm, debuting in 2010 and playing over 70 games before making the move to the Dragons where he stayed for six seasons.

Ahead of the 2020 Super League season, the Englishman swapped Australia for the UK and specifically Warrington where he has played ever since.