James Clare ready to fight for Wembley place, with priority on top of the table Catalan Dragons

Castleford Tigers winger James Clare is fit and ready to go after a spell on the sidelines. He is ready to fight for a place in Daryl Powell’s team for the Challenge Cup final at Wembley next month.

The 30-year-old has missed a large part of this season having had a post-season knee operation in January that ruled him out for pre-season and the start of the season. It looked like Clare would play a key role in the Tigers line-up however, the knee injury flared up once again ruling him out for another two to three weeks.

Wearing Castleford colours on two separate occasions now, Clare has bagged 49 tries in 90 appearances for the Tigers making him one of the clubs most efficient wingers.

Now back to full fitness he has been named in this weeks squad to face a Catalans Dragons side that sits top of Super League. Getting back out on the field has been the main priority for the winger.

“It feels great to be back, you ask any Rugby League player what they want to do and it’s playing Rugby League,” 

“Nobody wants to train no one wants to sit on the side-line, you just want to get to a game and play, get back watch the replay then play again.”

The Tigers are just three weeks away from their second appearance in a Wembley final in the past decade. In 2014 the Tigers were defeated by Leeds Rhinos in the Challenge Cup final with Clare missing out on the squad. This time around he wants to focus on maintaining his fitness as well as fighting for a place in Powell’s squad come July 17th.

“It is a great feeling to be back and test ourselves against an extremely good Catalans team and fight for a place at Wembley,” Clare added. Hopefully, I can get a bit of form personally and put myself into the shop window and kind of knock-on Powell’s door and say I want to play at Wembley.

“It is one of those things, Powell says he hasn’t got a team for Wembley and will pick purely on form, whoever the best players are leading up to that will be picked, that has been his philosophy for a number of years now and he has always made it clear from day one.

“It’s an opportunity to get your game fitness back and just get confidence in your own game and hopefully do the group proud against a good Catalans team.”

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