Rochdale Hornets have confirmed the early retirement of former Salford Red Devils man Jamie Pye.
The forward only joined the Hornets from Salford in the off-season as the Red Devils slipped towards liquidation. The hope will have been that Pye could take the next step in his career and establish himself in the Championship after struggling for minutes with Salford.
However, Rochdale have announced that the 23-year-old has been forced to step away from the game for the time being due to a change in his personal circumstances. It comes being unable to complete pre-season with the Hornets.
Pye hangs up his boots having made just 18 senior appearances in his career, with three of those coming with Salford. The other 15 came during two different loan spells with Barrow Raiders and he scored his one and only try for the Cumbrian outfit, too.
Rochdale have also confirmed that Paddy Jones has called time on his career just a few months after joining the club from North Wales Crusaders. Jones works as a fireman in Liverpool and the travel over to Greater Manchester ultimately proved to be too big of a commitment.
The Hornets announced the news as part of a squad update which detailed why as many nine first-teamers were unavailable on Sunday, when Gary Thornton’s side lost 20-0 to Whitehaven.
Jordan Paga, Matty Unsworth and Jordan Andrade are all out long-term through injury, while Max Flanagan, Dan Nixon and Ethan Wood have been struggling with concussion. Ross Whitmore also missed last weekend’s game after being selected to represent Scotland in Las Vegas.
As such, with so many injuries and absentees, chairman Andy Mazey has made a commitment to utilise the loan market as the club strive to find traction in the new look Championship.
“Hopefully supporters can hopefully understand the need to utilise the loan market as we are doing, particularly with a relatively small squad to begin with,” Mazey said.
“The reality is, without the three loanees on Sunday, we would not have had a full team to travel to Whitehaven.
“Overall, we are satisfied with the improvements made on last year and our current position. Having made such a good start to the season, I do understand it raises people’s expectations, but we must stay grounded and consider all factors when we evaluate results and performances.
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“While we approach every game to win and that’s non-negotiable at any club I’m involved with, we also have to be realists and can’t escape the fact that sides like Hunslet who operated as a Championship club last year, with Championship revenues and top end Championship players such as Lee Gaskell and Eddie Battye, whose combined contracts alone equal our entire contract money spend, means we will, at times when not at our best, come up short.
“Nevertheless, supporters can rest assured that everyone is working extremely hard, on and off the pitch, to ensure standards remain high and performance levels are as good as they can be, in what is a more physically demanding Championship competition than League One ever was.”
