The new captain of Salford Red Devil’s, Kallum Watkins spoke about the new season, captaincy and his road to recovery from injury.
During England’s dramatic defeat to Samoa in the Semi-finals of the Rugby League World Cup, Red Devil’s skipper Kallum Watkins sustained a serious injury which many believed would leave him side-lined for the opening month of the upcoming Rugby League season.
Watkins said: “I had an operation on my shoulder, ruptured my bicep. I had the surgery about a week or so after and it went really well.
“I’m pretty much back in full training now. Everyone talked about me being out for probably the first month but I think the surgery went pretty well so hopefully I should be back for the first game.”
Following the exit of former captain, Elijah Taylor, to Featherstone Rovers, Watkins was appointed the new captain of the side.
The 31-year old insists that he does not feel any extra pressure to rush back from injury since being made captain.
He continued: “I’m taking my time, I think especially through training and being precautious on the contact side of it.
“There’s no pressure in that sense, captaincy or anything like that. I probably get looked after even more to make myself even more ready. If I feel right to go from round one I’ll be there from round one.”
It has been a bitter sweet 12 months for Watkins, coming so close to glory in both the Bet Fred Challenge cup and World Cup but missing out on both accolades in the semi-finals respectively.
𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗯𝗼𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻… 🫡
We’re delighted to announce Kallum Watkins has become the new Club captain, with Brodie Croft and Marc Sneyd to continue as vice-captains!
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💪 #TogetherStronger | 🔴👹
— Salford Red Devils 👹 (@SalfordDevils) January 16, 2023
Now with the added responsibility of captaincy, he is confident that he and his teammates will take the lessons learnt from last season’s pain and apply them to the upcoming season.
He continued: “For us it’s about improving on last year and about being consistent. It’s going to be about coming up with something when the other team are tired or maybe even when we are tired that might surprise some other teams.
“In those big games we’ve got that experience now where I think a few of the players didn’t have it really in those play offs, semi finals kind of games and they’ll learn lessons from it and come better from it on the other side.
“It’s going to be a tough journey, it always is, but it’s really exciting times at the club.”
Salford Red Devils return to league action away at Leigh on February 17th. In the meantime they are playing a preseason friendly against Swinton Lions on Sunday, January 29th. Tickets for this preseason game can be purchased here.
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