{"id":689429,"date":"2026-01-11T18:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689429\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T18:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:30:39","slug":"championship-star-confirms-injury-in-own-testimonial-as-side-record-huge-win-over-international-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689429\/","title":{"rendered":"Championship star confirms injury in own testimonial as side record huge win over international opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DSC_4350.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\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<p><strong>Championship and Barrow Raiders star Shane Toal celebrated his testimonial game over the weekend, but it came at a cost as he picked up an injury in the contest<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Toal, who has represented Barrow for over a decade, was granted the year-long honour by the RFL for his services to the club and the sport.<\/p>\n<p>He opted to play a game against the Scotland national team, as he looked to help both sides prepare for their respective season ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Barrow used the match as their final warm-up fixture before the campaign begins next week, whilst Scotland used it to prepare for their upcoming tour of Las Vegas, as the nation gets ready for a match against the USA on the same weekend that the NRL and Super League sides are in the Sin City.<\/p>\n<p>Toal played for the Raiders in the first half before switching sides in the second, though this game won\u2019t be added to his tally of three matches as a Scottish international.<\/p>\n<p>Barrow took a convincing 74-6 victory, but that came at a cost for the full-back. Speaking post-match, he revealed he had picked up a niggle on his hamstring, and could miss the season opener next week.<\/p>\n<p>He confirmed: \u201cMy hamstring was quite tight, and I was thinking about taking myself off, because I was struggling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was chasing a nothing kick at the end and just pulled up. I don\u2019t know how bad it is at the moment\u2026 fingers crossed it\u2019s not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the event overall though, it will be an occasion that will live long in Toal\u2019s memory, as he reflects on what has been a successful 11-year career with Barrow to date.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had a really good day, to be honest. I was a little bit more nervous for the game today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got really nervous when everyone walked out, and I was stood in the changing rooms on my own. I thought \u2018I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing here. I felt lost\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qYpC2b94Sbw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">our YouTube channel here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We caught up with Shane Toal after his testimonial match \ud83d\udc4f \ud83d\udde3\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7v7rDTjJo8\">pic.twitter.com\/7v7rDTjJo8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Barrow Raiders (@BarrowRaiders) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BarrowRaiders\/status\/2010252839202050548?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Championship and Barrow Raiders star Shane Toal celebrated his testimonial game over the weekend, but it came at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-689429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115877893337552872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689429","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=689429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}