New Super League club London Broncos have had some bad look in recent weeks.
They lost Bill Leyland to an ACL injury against Castleford Tigers and their injury woes have only been worsened on top of this.
Add to this the departures of star men like Corey Norman and Dean Whare have left the club. The club have done well to sign some top stars to help their squads but with these injuries they may return to the market to strengthen their squad with emergency signings.
They are also likely to sign Lee Kershaw to a permanent contract after his trial.
Super League star suffers devastating injury
Picture by Olly Hassell/SWpix.com – 27/05/2023 – Rugby League – Betfred Championship Summer Bash – Whitehaven RLFC v Barrow Raiders – LNER Community Stadium, York, England – Whitehaven’s Josh Rourke fails to stop Barrow’s Anton Iaria scoring a try
The latest injury blow for the London Broncos was to Josh Rourke who has sadly broken his leg.
Rourke has had a storybook career building to Super League. At 14 he signed a scholarship at Widnes Vikings initially playing as either a hooker or half-back. Rourke would spend 2 years at the club before more heartbreak when he was released. At that point Rourke rejoined Chorley so he could continue to play but more for fun “with friends”. It was at this point he began to play full-back and was beginning to watch more Super League rugby where he looked up to the likes of Sam Tomkins.
Despite still playing amateur rugby in 2019 for Chorley there was still plenty of interest in Rourke’s talents. In the end it was Salford who won the race to sign the now 19 year old Rourke. After impressing on trial Rourke would play 4 times for the reserve side before the COVID pandemic struck and caused huge disruption to the development of many players. With the reserve team disbanded Rourke kept up his fitness by playing for Leigh Minors as that was the highest level of amateur rugby available to him at the time. Once it was deemed safe to return to professional rugby Rourke successfully re-trialled for Salford and completed his first full season of rugby for the club reserves side and his form saw him rewarded with a Super League debut against Warrington Wolves in 2022.
Sadly though, he will have to wait to have his return to Super League.
