{"id":336131,"date":"2025-12-26T07:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T07:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/336131\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T07:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T07:14:13","slug":"bradford-bulls-and-ex-hull-kr-and-leeds-rhinos-man-retires-with-immediate-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/336131\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradford Bulls and ex-Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos man retires with immediate effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Leeds\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Former Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR man James Donaldson has decided to bring the curtain down on his rugby league playing days with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

The Bradford Bulls forward ruptured his ACL while playing for the club back in June and has been working towards making a playing return. However, as the Bulls<\/a> ready themselves for the start of their first season back in Super League, Donaldson has made the decision to step away from the game.<\/p>\n

It brings an end to a career that has spanned 16 years, with the 34-year-old starting his career in 2009 with the Bulls. The Cumbrian made 79 appearances for the club before moving on in 2015 to join Hull KR.<\/p>\n

Donaldson spent four seasons in east Hull, where he made 78 outings and helped the club bounce back from their relegation in 2016.<\/p>\n

He joined Leeds Rhinos ahead of the 2019 season and in the six seasons he spent at Headingley, he featured 115 times. He won the Challenge Cup during his time as a player for the club, with Leeds beating Salford Red Devils back in 2020.<\/p>\n

Donaldson re-joined Bradford on a three-season deal ahead of the 2025 season, but he made just 14 appearances before suffering the knee injury on June 1 against Doncaster.<\/p>\n

Bradford Bulls CEO pays tribute to James Donaldson<\/p>\n

\u201cJames Donaldson embodies all that\u2019s good in rugby league and what it takes to be a true professional,\u201d Bradford CEO Jason Hirst said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNamely, his moral compass, integrity, focus, dedication, desire, determination, discipline, durability, toughness and sheer will to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll attributes that will ensure James continues to be successful in the next chapter of his working life.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\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

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR man James Donaldson has decided to bring the curtain down on his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-336131","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\/336131","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=336131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}