Rugby League<\/a> Cares to put towards my driving course for HGVs,\u201d Watts said. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing that, and I actually passed my test last week, so I\u2019m pretty over the moon with that.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve hopefully got a job for the start of January, so I\u2019m currently just waiting about and taking every day as it comes, enjoying some downtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew last year it was going to be my last year full-time, then I went to Hull and got a new lease of life. Unfortunately, I got a couple of injuries which I\u2019ve never really had in my career, but it meant I could put things in place, reach out to a few people while also training hard to recover and get fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite plans beyond rugby being down the track, Watts remains enthused about playing again next year, and potentially beyond that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my mind, I could do another year of Super League and fully retire or go working and play part-time, and I feel I have another few years in me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe break I had this year helped, I think. When I came back at the end it was the best I\u2019ve felt for a few years and I was playing about 60 minutes, which is the best I\u2019ve felt engine-wise.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I looked at it and thought if I get a job now there\u2019s probably a few more years in me. If you look at some of the guys in the competition at the minute, there\u2019s Brett Ferres, Suaia Matagia, Pauli Pauli, they\u2019re not young anymore but can sustain playing in that league because it\u2019s competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rough and tumble too, which will suit me more coming to the back end of my career. It\u2019s rough and ready, there are people who want to have a shot at you, I want to embrace that. It\u2019s the way I like to play and I\u2019m looking forward to that part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it stands, there is nothing lined up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d been having conversations with Sheffield, and I felt there was an option there, but in the end there wasn\u2019t and that blew me back a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message I\u2019m getting from a lot of clubs is that the gradings have put a blocker on teams so they\u2019re just sticking to the budget they can afford unless they\u2019ve got a realistic chance of going up. London are spending big money, but below that, a lot are sticking to their budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, Sheffield blew me back a little bit, I could have signed there in February with Linners (Craig Lingard) going there, I\u2019d played under him before, but by the time I came around to it, it was off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watts is aware that there is a reality that his professional career might be over.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, if nothing comes up, nothing comes up,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you never know what will happen. When I was leaving Cas, I never in a million years thought I\u2019d be signing back at Hull FC.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunnily enough, somebody had messaged me probably two or three weeks before saying I\u2019d end up back there and I said not to be so daft with the money they were spending and the team they\u2019d put together, then I got the phone call from Richie. So you just never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his latest stint with the Black and Whites, Watts looks back on it fondly.<\/p>\n
\u201cRichie said he wanted a bit of the old winning mentality back, they\u2019d brought Gaz Ellis back in, and obviously I\u2019m well connected to Danny Houghton, Andy Last and Danny Washbrook. He said if I wanted to be part of it short-term and see what happens long-term, the offer was there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to get back there. It was just a matter of timing about not staying really. I got misdiagnosed with one of my injuries, which sort of put me back five weeks more than what I should have been. They were treating me for something that was completely different to what I was injured with, and it was just one of those things with the scan result and obviously sometimes they’re not clear cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey I had a flare up with my Achilles tendon, and once I got back I did my knee in training, it was just an unfortunate accident with Amir and my leg got tangled up. Obviously, RIchie was putting a squad together and had signed Harvie Hill, Sam Lisone and a few other forwards. Liam Knight ended up staying. They did offer me a contract but it wasn\u2019t enough for me to live on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watts added: \u201cWhatever’s in store for me next, if my time\u2019s up, that\u2019s that. I always said I wanted to finish on my terms, it is why I ended up leaving Cas because I didn\u2019t just want to be sat on the sidelines for my last full-time year. I went somewhere to finish on my terms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watts remains a free agent ahead of the 2026 season.Hull FC prop Liam Watts. (Image: SW PIX) As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[115424,4151,6531,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-639922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-hull-fc","9":"tag-rugby","10":"tag-rugby-league","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115739785213208242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639922","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=639922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hull](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1_lIAM-wATTS-Hull-FC.jpg\")
Hull FC prop Liam Watts. (Image: SW PIX)<\/p>\n