{"id":406376,"date":"2026-01-11T14:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T14:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406376\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T14:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T14:26:07","slug":"widnes-vikings-boss-lauds-jordan-abdull-after-long-awaited-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406376\/","title":{"rendered":"Widnes Vikings boss lauds Jordan Abdull after long-awaited return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jordan Abdull stepped out onto the field for the first time in over 12 months on Friday night, with Widnes Vikings boss Allan Coleman tipping his new recruit to \u2018get better and better\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Playmaker Abdull has joined Championship outfit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/club\/widnes-vikings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Widnes<\/a> for the 2026 campaign and enjoyed a 60-minute stint at The Halliwell Jones Stadium in their first pre-season hit-out against local rivals Warrington Wolves.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/super-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> side Wire ended up 50-12 winners, but for Abdull, the game marked his first since September 14, 2024 as he lined up for Catalans Dragons against London Broncos.<\/p>\n<p>That was the last game of his loan stint with Catalans, and ahead of 2025, he had agreed a deal to return to Hull FC on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n<p>But the 29-year-old was released by FC before he had chance to don their shirt amid injury and fitness concerns, and it has been a long journey back to the field for him in the 12 months or so since.<\/p>\n<p>Want more Love Rugby League? Add us as a <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=loverugbyleague.com\" target=\"_blank\">preferred source on Google<\/a> and ensure you never miss our exclusives and breaking news!<\/p>\n<p>Widnes Vikings boss provides Jordan Abdull assessment following long-awaited rugby league return<\/p>\n<p>Abdull will turn 30 next month, and is nearing the milestone of 200 senior career appearances having previously represented Hull FC, Doncaster, Featherstone Rovers, Hull KR, London Broncos and Catalans.<\/p>\n<p>Providing an assessment of the former England international\u2019s unofficial Vikings debut following the friendly against Warrington, head coach Coleman said: \u201cI was really happy with him for his first game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe looked like he was enjoying it, which is a big thing for him. If he can enjoy his rugby, he\u2019ll just get better and better. 100% he will.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe tried some things, some things didn\u2019t come off, he took quite a bit of ball up to line as well. They had to stop him and he\u2019ll get sharper just doing that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI thought in the first 15-20 minutes, we looked really sharp with him and Joe (Lyons). We finish on a scrum line and then we play on the back shape of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next Sunday, January 18, will see Widnes begin their 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/championship\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Championship<\/a> campaign with a trip to title favourites London Broncos.<\/p>\n<p>On Abdull, Vikings boss Coleman continued: \u201cHe\u2019s travelling round and coming in to the line, so really pleasing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWhen he came off, I said, \u2018how was that?\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He said, \u2018yeah, I felt great\u2019, so I\u2019m really pleased to see him get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan Abdull stepped out onto the field for the first time in over 12 months on Friday night,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-406376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}