Former Great Britain international Lee Gilmour is getting ready to resume his career at the age of 37.
Leeds’ Jamie Peacock and Adrian Morley of Salford Red Devils, who both turn 38 this year, are the only First Utility Super League players older than Gilmour, who began his professional career as a teenager with Wigan Warriors in 1997 and went on to play for Bradford Bulls, St Helens, Huddersfield Giants and Castleford Tigers before moving to Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, initially on loan, last year.
Gilmour, who played in the Wildcats’ last 13 matches of the 2014 season to take his total of Super League appearances past 400, joined the club’s coaching staff in the winter but remained on the playing register to provide back-up for head coach James Webster.
Now, with injuries to Webster’s small squad, the Dewsbury-born second rower is stepping up his training and is poised to make his return just after the busy Easter period when clubs are traditionally crying out for new blood.
“Lee has started training,” Webster said. “He had a really big knee operation in the off season, which wiped him out for a while.
“With the amount of people we had in his position, he was thinking ‘I’ll start training a bit later than I probably need to’.
“I reckon in two or three weeks, Lee will be getting closer to being able to play. He’s keen on doing it, we’ll see how he goes. It’s really hard mentally and physically after Easter and, if all things go well, he will be available.
“He’s a guy who has played 500 games but he’s still fit and he still knows how to play. Realistically we got him as a coach first and back-up player second. He understands that. We’ll see how he pulls up over the next few weeks.”
In the meantime, Webster has been able to bolster his pack with the month-long loan signings of Jordan Hand and George Griffin, from St Helens and Salford respectively, ahead of Sunday’s home game against Huddersfield.
“It was tough,” Webster said. “It took a lot of work to get Jordan and George into our squad. With Easter coming up, not too many clubs were willing to entertain the idea of putting players out on loan.
“We’re happy that we’ve been able to add two new faces to our squad. Definitely one of them will play on Sunday, maybe not both, but over the Easter period both will play a lot.
“They’re here for five games, all in the space of around 15 days, so it’s going to be a busy period for us.”
Webster will give a debut to former Castleford and Hull FC centre Joe Arundel against the Giants in place of the injured Reece Lyne while former Leeds prop Ian Kirke, who joined Wakefield in the close season, is edging closer to making his first appearance after recovering from a leg injury.