Castleford Tigers ace set to join Hull KR as Andy Last admits 'we're not in a position to make him an offer'
Full-back Niall Evalds looks set to join Hull KR next season after Castleford Tigers coach Andy Last revealed they aren’t in a position to offer him a new deal.
Evalds joined Tigers from Salford Red Devils ahead of the 2021 Betfred Super League campaign and is out of contract in November.
Hull KR coach Willie Peters has said his club “definitely have interest” in Evalds and Last confirmed they won’t face opposition from Tigers.
Evalds suffered a potentially season-ending pectoral muscle injury last month and speaking at his weekly preview press conference on Thursday, Last stated: “It is a tough one with Niall.
“We haven’t seen the best of him since I’ve been on board and we’re not in a position at this moment to make him an offer, because he’s not playing.
“We need to make sure we cut our cloth accordingly and spend our budget wisely. At the moment, the fact he’s not playing makes it difficult to put a strong case to say we’re going to make this amount of money available to him from a signing point of view.”
Last added: “It is tough, when contracts aren’t given out and you pass the May 1 deadline, other teams are able to enquire and make offers and some teams may be afforded a bit more budget than we’ve got.
“Niall is a good player and a good kid and it’s unfortunate we haven’t quite seen the best of him.”
Tigers have been linked with Hull full-back Jamie Shaul, but Last insisted that speculation is “way off the mark”.