Reay wants to put injury woe behind him

Sam Reay is hoping to brush aside his injury problems of the last two seasons as Swinton prepare to take in York City Knights in the opening game of the Northern Rail Cup on Sunday.

Reay, 27, was struck down mid-way through the last campaign with an emergency appendix operation.

It took 12 weeks out of his season before he returned to help the Lions win the Championship 1 title.

“Hopefully I won’t have another season like last year – you’ve only got one appendix so I won’t have to go through that again,” he laughed.

“I was just unlucky. I thought I had a stomach bug but the next thing I was doubled up in pain.

“I went to the hospital and straight away they said ‘no food and drink for eight hours’ and then I went down for an operation.”

The former Wigan junior joined Swinton from Leigh after loan spells at Blackpool and Doncaster.

He is optimistic for the new season and said: “We are a new team in this division.

“We have a lot to learn and we are not going to make any predictions.

“Some teams might think we’ll be a soft touch but I don’t think that will be the case.

“We have a squad full of quality.

“In the games so far we have not shown for the full 80 minutes but we’ve been good in spells. We were very good in the second half against Barrow.”