\n The 34-year-old made his professional debut in the red, amber and black aged just 17 in 2009 \u2013 going on to make 79 appearances before joining Hull Kingston Rovers in 2015.\n<\/p>\n
\n After three years as a Robin, the Cumbrian forward signed for Leeds Rhinos, where he spent the last seven seasons, lifting the Challenge Cup in 2020 and featuring in Super League\u2019s Grand Final in 2022.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Cumbrian was awarded a three-month testimonial across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, in recognition of his services to Rugby League.\n<\/p>\n
\n Donaldson completed an emotional return to the Bulls ahead of the 2025 season, featuring 15 times as the club achieved its goal of a return to Super League for 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sadly, he suffered a season-ending knee injury in June against Doncaster, which ultimately brought his career to a premature end.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bradford Bulls CEO Jason Hirst said: \u201cJames Donaldson embodies all that\u2019s good in Rugby League and what it takes to be a true professional.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cNamely, his moral compass, integrity, focus, dedication, desire, determination, discipline, durability, toughness and sheer will to succeed.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAll attributes that will ensure James continues to be successful in the next chapter of his working life.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI could go on and on, but needless to say, he has the total respect of everyone at Bradford Bulls, not to mention our wider sport.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cDespite many injury setbacks, James has had a stellar career, across a number of clubs and I\u2019m privileged to have watched him serve our club, so well, across two spells and I am proud to know him.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOn behalf of everyone at Bradford Bulls, I\u2019d like to wish James and his young family every success in 2026 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 34-year-old made his professional debut in the red, amber and black aged just 17 in 2009 \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-330497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}