Ben Cross to retire at end of the season

Widnes prop Ben Cross will hang up his boots at the end of the season.

Cross, 34, is in his second season at Widnes having first come to Super League with Leeds in 2011, before spending a short time at Wigan.

He said: “From day one, the Vikings have been fantastic with me and this was my way of giving the club the opportunity to know where they stand with me. I was really keen to play on in 2014 but having picked up a hamstring injury in the early part of the season, as luck would have it – I then did my knee in my first game back.

“If I’m honest it was then when I thought, enough’s enough. I can come back from a minor injury but if it was anything more serious, I genuinely don’t think that I’ve got the drive left in me to keep coming back from injury after injury. 

“I’m a big believer that preparation leads to playing well and when you get injured and you can’t train as often as you’d like every week, it’s really frustrating and gets to you after a while. 

“I’m really comfortable with the decision I’ve made and it’s good to finally get it out in the open.”

Cross, who played in the NRL for Canberra, Melbourne and Newcastle, scored the first senior try of his career when playing for the Vikings against Huddersfield last season.

He added: “Scoring my first-ever senior try, in a Widnes jersey, is always going to give me something to look back at on my highlights reel and smile about.

“Being offered the opportunity to play in the Super League is something I’m extremely grateful for and I can now speak from experience. Individually, I’m always willing to listen to advice from anybody who has actually walked in those shoes and experienced it for themselves. I’m delighted to say that I’m now in position to do exactly that for myself, and I’ve done it for three strong clubs in both the NRL and overseas.”

The Australian will return home at the end of the year and plans to get into coaching.