Neal returns to rugby league with Oldham

Former Salford prop Adam Neal has signed for League One side Oldham.

Neal, 24, had a year out of the sport after leaving the Red Devils at the end of the 2013 season.

Roughyeds Coach Scott Naylor said: “He did the right thing to bow out for a bit. He had lost some of his appetite for the game, but the break has done him a world of good. The old hunger is back.

“He has lots of Super League experience and once he has done a full pre-season with us I’m sure he’ll emerge as one of our pack leaders.

“He is another player who we are very lucky to have at Oldham.”

The former Crosfields junior came through the ranks at Warrington, and made his first team debut in a Challenge Cup win at Leigh aged 17.

He moved on to Salford in 2010, and went on to make 45 Super League appearances for the club.

Neal said: “When I was ready to start again I had a lot of serious thinking to do because I received a few offers, some of them from clubs in the Championship.

“Initially, Lewis Palfrey and Adam Clay ‘sold’ Oldham to me, then I was impressed when I spoke to Scott (Naylor). He gave it to me straight — what the club was all about and what it was trying to achieve.

“I liked his honesty, and he convinced me that the environment at the club was one into which I would fit comfortably.”