I never met him , which is a real shame because he's done a really honourable thing .
it must be disappointing but as the press release states I guess that means find a replacement.

is he the only major signing that's retired before he ever made it onto the field for us ?
Shane Kenward is the nearest . 20mins into 1st game broke his Arm ( Morley ? ) never played for us again .

Terrible news for Bailey but fair play to him for holding his hands up and doing what's best for the club rather than himslef. Could have easily sat around for a season not playing and getting payed (well) but obviously not that kind of guy.

Does support the Gleeson rumours, if Gleeson does come I suppose it would mean a permanent switch to the 2nd row for Nero. Will be an interesting couple of weeks, im sure we'll get linked to every over -the-hill aussie going now!

You're right it was Morley in a tackle. You've got me thinking now if there were any more.

Told you all back at the beginning of February that he was crocked, and nobody listened. Proof if ever it was needed that the club are at fault here for not giving him a medical as there is no way that he could have ever made it through one successfully. For the amount of money he was on, the club could possibly sign 2 players now. That's if they learn there lesson and give them medicals.

Didn't John Schuster sign from Halifax and then change his mind before he'd even reached the Pennines?

Yeah he did, I was thinking along the lines of injury but yeah. I remember Wilky was fuming about it.

What about Scott Wilson? He didn't get injured but he did actually get here before clearing off without playing.

No Scott Wilson played 1 full game ( Against Leeds , evening kick off in the Snow ) thought [i"bugger that for a game of soldiers" [/i and was on the next flight home.

The club should do a deal with Benji Marshall's agent. The club announce his signing, sell a few more thousand more season tickets for 2012 and then announce he's had second thoughts. The club then uses the extra money to pay Marshall a fee for the publicity stunt and to sign some top quality players. Simples!!

Bad news for Bailey and as many have said thanks for doing the right thing and allowing us to make the most of it. I wish you well in what ever you do next.

Also as someone else has said ( and we've discussed it to death on here ) There is something seriously wrong within the club regarding the medical process if we can take on a player who retires early in the season without even putting the shirt on.

Who is actually responsible for that part of it? I presume it's Simms?

If you read the BBC Sport article it says that a recurrence of a former injury was sustained on the eve of the first game against the Crusaders. It's easy to criticise but I don't think there is ever a 100% guarantee with a medical. The professionals that do the medical's will be protected from any liability anyway.

Different sport but I'm sure these guys had medicals...

Darren Anderton
Owen Hargreaves
Micheal Owen
Louis Saha
Harry Kewell
Ledley King
Jonathan Woodgate

Didn't quite work for them

Who was that Aussie forward Wigan signed a few years ago who made his debut in a pre-season friendly against us, and suffered a career ending chest injury on pretty much his first run after coming on as sub?

Luke Davico, played all of 10mins i think

That's him. Made a comeback back in OZ a couple of years later, if I remember correctly.

Good post TRS, spot on with analysis of our NEEDS. I don't think we need another centre (especially Martin Gleeson), but we sure as hell could do with another decent forward.

Unless the plan is to use Chris Nero in that 'second row who can also play centre role'. He played well in the second row on Friday.

I think we've been really lucky here. Everybody in Wigan knew Bailey was finished and yet we saw fit to award him a 2 year contract. Can't thank the guy enough for admitting the true extent of his injury. This now gives us the opportunity to bring in someone else, although I don't know who would be available that isn't already tied up for this season, (Apart from the Gleeson rumour).

Aussie legend Steve Rogers broke him leg after 13 minutes of his debut game for Widnes back in 1986. Never played again after the injury.

He has done the decent thing. There will probably have been clauses in his contract to cover this too

How many games did Jason Laurence manage for us?

I understand you completely here, and I didn't see him play last week: I just wonder if 1. he's happy there, and 2. he's up to the job week in and week out. He's a big lump of a lad that's for sure.

Really? I'm struggling to remember that. Was that a home game? I remember us being scheduled to play Leeds in a Friday game in 1995-95, it snowed all Friday afternoon, the game was announced as on, and after a two hour drive from Prestwich to Salford through mad traffic, it was called off.

Was that the night many people got stuck on the top of the Pennines on the M62 ?

Damien Reid ?

Diamond geezer, sorry to hear about this and wish him and you guys all the very best. Always brought a smile to my face when he was playing and if there was a loose ball hanging around it was a knocking bet that Bails would be around to drop on it, he was great with the youngsters at Wigan and was a very loyal commited player. Is he going back to Aus or is there any chance of him staying around in some kind of coaching role cos if there is he will be very popular and do a good job for you