{"id":1184560,"date":"2026-09-03T18:11:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1184560\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T18:11:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:11:27","slug":"st-helens-legend-mark-percival-to-retire-as-centre-calls-time-on-14-year-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1184560\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens legend Mark Percival to retire as centre calls time on 14-year career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

St Helens have announced that club legend Mark Percival will hang up the boots at the end of the season, with the centre\u2019s retirement now confirmed.<\/b><\/p>\n

It marks the second major announcement from the club in a matter of weeks regarding a club icon retiring, with Jonny Lomax also set to hang up the boots<\/a> at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Percival\u2019s announcement now means that only Jack Welsby, Alex Walmsley, Curtis Sironen and Matty Lees remain from the 2022 squad that would go on to win the Grand Final.<\/p>\n

Still only 32, Percival has been held back by persistent injuries in 2026, with the centre playing just seven times so far this season, though he will play this Friday night against Leigh Leopards.<\/p>\n

That will be his 274th St Helens appearance with Percival debuting for the club back in 2013 and going on to win six Super League titles, one Challenge Cup, and a World Club Challenge, whilst also earning six caps for England.<\/p>\n

RIP Sir Billy, under-the-radar challengers, Hull KR\u2019s controversial call and more \u2013 Click here to watch this week\u2019s episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

St Helens\u2019 Mark Percival to retire at end of 2026 season<\/p>\n

Mark Percival established himself as one of the best centres in Super League throughout his 14-year career and interim coach Eamon O\u2019Carroll was keen to pay tribute when speaking in his press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Most Read on Serious About Rugby League<\/p>\n

O\u2019Carroll said: \u201cWhen Percy addressed the a group today, you can see even more so, one, how much he cares, but how much the group care about him. And I include lads who\u2019ve only been here for a season as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just one of them characters, it\u2019s really hard to describe. If you\u2019re down in the dumps a little bit or going through a tough period, you want to be around because he lifts everyone\u2019s spirits, but when you go into war, you want him next to you, and that\u2019s the type of character that he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re probably a bit of a dying breed in our sport, those types of people, everyone just lives into bits. It is sad, but I think it\u2019s something that we should celebrate for him, because he\u2019s had a fantastic career, overcome some adversity, a lot like Jonny Lomax, but he\u2019s been so important to this club and to this group as well, so we want to make it a special ending for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Carroll was also keen to state and make clear that Percival\u2019s decision to hang up the boots before new coach Kevin Walters takes charge is entirely coincidental, stating that it\u2019s something that \u2018numpties\u2019 would think, as he clarified: \u201cThe kid\u2019s not played most of the year because he\u2019s been injured, so there\u2019s certainly nothing in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Helens have announced that club legend Mark Percival will hang up the boots at the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1184561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-1184560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117208463529967076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}