‘Rusty’ Sam Tomkins gives update on his knee after Hull FC win

Sam Tomkins marked his return from retirement with a try as Catalans Dragons beat Hull FC 24-16 at the Stade Gilbert Brutus in a fiery affair.

Both teams were reduced to 12 within the opening quarter of an hour as Tariq Sims and Ligi Sao were shown red by referee Liam Rush for moving an injured player and a high shot respectively.

It was returnee Sam Tomkins who copped the high shot from Sao and he noted that in his post-match interview on Sky Sports as he noted a “few bangs on the head”.

However, the big question regarding the return of Sam Tomkins was how his knee would fare up with the 35-year-old having called time at the end of 2024 on account of his badly damaged knee.

When speaking about the decision to return, Tomkins had explained that the nine-and-a-half months away had allowed the knee to recover but admitted that it wasn’t “perfect”. After his first game back in 287 days, the Englishman offered an update.

Sam Tomkins admits he felt “rusty” on return

Reacting after the victory that saw Catalans move into fourth, Tomkins told Sky Sports: “Yeah, it feels good to be back out here. I’ve been at the club a long time and the fans, I’ve got a great relationship with them. So it’s nice to be out here and getting clapped.

“The performance today wasn’t great, I felt rusty. I felt like my lungs were struggling in that last 20 minutes but we got the win.”

Asked how his knee had fared with the test, he clarified: “Yeah, yeah, it’s just lungs, you can only replicate so much in training and with the knee that I’ve got I can’t do too much lung cardio so I was prepared as well as I could be but today I’ll certainly put me in good step for weeks going forward in terms of cardio.”

He was quick to note how tough the game was given the injury sustained to fellow veteran Micky McIlorum and how the heat affected each team as they played a man down.

“I got a few bangs on the head, it’s nothing new, don’t worry about me. I think the game was tough, we lost Micky McIlorum in the first five minutes, we didn’t carry a nine on the bench and then we got a red card.

“Luckily they got a red card not long after so it equalled it up but both teams had to empty the tanks because it was hot and there’s a lot of space on the field and a lot of work to cover.

“I’m glad we got the win. It wasn’t nice watching I’m sure but we’ll learn a lot from that.”