“You should retire” – Luke Gale opens up on jibes and transition to part-time

Luke Gale made the bold decision to move from Super League to the Championship at the end of 2022 after a stunning career in Super League winning the Man of Steel with Castleford Tigers and starring at Leeds Rhinos as captain.

Speaking on the Bench podcast, Gale opened up on the transition to the Championshop and being part time:

“It’s something I enjoy, you’re not in every day. Getting used to the night training was quite hard, coming home at half nine at night and all the lads joked about it saying that’s the hardest bit to get used to.

“Say you have a drubbing in Super League, say Castleford get pumped. They’d go in the next morning and you’ve got video review and you relive it every single day. The part time kind of takes that little bit of pressure off.

“We got beat by Featherstone Round One, it wasn’t a great performance and it was almost a baptism of fire. We got pumped by 50 but lads are back at work in the morning. There’s not too much time to reflect.

“I’m still at the gym four or five times a week so I’m still in the mindset of an elite performer. It’s been something I’ve really enjoyed, spending more time with the family and the last couple of weeks we’ve started to play a bit better on the field as well.”

He also spoke about being told he should retire in jibes from fans after an injury in 2018 just after winning the Man of Steel:

“It all stemmed from when I had a knee on knee clash with Pauli Pauli. I broke my patella and then underneath that all the cartilage and that led to my achilles not long after that.

“I did this twice it’s called a microfracture. I did that the first time and it didn’t work, that was 2018 and then had it redone. So I kind of missed a full year.

“As I was coming back rehabbing I did my achilles and that’s when you get the things like ‘you should retire Gale’.”