Rugby League: Edwards agrees to stay at Wigan
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Your support makes all the difference.Shaun Edwards has agreed a one-year extension to his Wigan contract which will keep him at Central Park until after the 1998 season - but will miss Great Britain's tour this autumn.
Edwards, who had been linked with a possible move to London Broncos or Salford after his recent public dissatisfaction at Wigan, wanted a contract extension or a transfer. He does not want to start next season, however, with a knee which has been giving him trouble for some time - and surgery on it will rule him out of the tour to Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand.
"The surgeon has seen the results of the scan and I expect to see him in the next couple of weeks to decide when the operation should take place," Edwards said. "It's upsetting to miss a second tour through injury, because I missed the 1990 trip the same way. But that's part of life in rugby league."
"It's a blow, but it is not entirely unexpected," Phil Larder, the Great Britain coach, said. "We have known for some time that he has had a bad knee and it could need an operation."
Larder must now choose a replacement for Edwards, as well as for Gary Connolly, Jason Robinson and Lee Jackson, whose participation has been blocked by their contracts with the Australian Rugby League.
"We have lost four Test players and it could be that we need to bring in at least one very experienced international player, instead of simply straight replacements for the ones we have lost," Larder said.
Great Britain's back-up scrum-halves are Ryan Sheridan of Sheffield Eagles and Craig Murdock, who has kept Edwards out of Wigan's starting line-up at times this season, but Larder could be thinking of a recall for Daryl Powell, who has won 28 caps at stand-off and centre. There will be no decision until next week, when other members of the tour management team will all be available.
First and Second Division clubs are to meet tomorrow to discuss their concern over the possibility of losing part of their share of the money from News Limited in order to give Super League clubs more.
Among other suggestions, there is a lobby for a return to winter rugby for the lower divisions, but the League's chief executive, Maurice Lindsay, warned yesterday that decisions affecting the game's future can only be made by all clubs, when they next meet on 11 September.
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