Newcastle’s Trent Hodkinson denis he wants to to retire and rubbishes talk his body is failing him

AS he fights to save his career, former NSW half Trent Hodkinson tells The Daily Telegraph he is not ready to retire and rubbished talk his body was failing him.

Trent Hodkinson turning out for the Knights in the NSW Cup. Photo: Gregg Porteous

THREE years ago he was preparing to lead NSW to end Queensland’s record breaking run now Trent Hodkinson is ready to fight for his career.

Hodkinson has dismissed suggestions he wanted to retire and rubbished talk his body was failing him. The former NSW half returned to rugby league on Saturday for the first time since his shock axing as the Knights captain and No.7

He turned out for Newcastle’s NSW Cup team in front of a handful of fans with Newcastle losing 42-26 to Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday.

The 28-year-old told the Sunday Telegraph he was not prepared to pull the pin on his eight year career.

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Trent Hodkinson turning out for the Knights in the NSW Cup. Photo: Gregg Porteous

“I’m not ready to give it away yet,” Hodkinson said. “I still have a while I still think. I’m looking forward to it.

“I’m pretty over people talking about the knee to be honest. At the end of day I’ve missed one game in four years and I played Origin with it. It’s not a drama. It’s just a bit of confidence in myself.”

Hodkinson put his hand up to play NSW Cup, while his NRL teammates took to the field on the Gold Coast. He said coach Nathan Brown had not ruled out a return to the top grade.

“I’m my own harshest critic,” Hodkinson said. “I’m pretty hard on myself. My standards weren’t where Browny wanted. I agreed and said I would go down and work on it and come back up when I’m ready.

“I wanted to come back and play some footy and go from there. (Brown) wanted me to go back down here and work on a few things. He said to go down for a game or so and work for a stuff and then come up (to first grade).”

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Hodkinson laid on two second half tries, and kicked three goals from six attempts, during his team’s loss to the bottom placed Wests Tigers. The Knights trailed 24-6 at halftime.

“I thought it wasn’t too bad,” Hodkinson said. “In the first half we didn’t have much footy. We defended most of that first half and the scoreboard showed. In the second half I was able to get involved in a couple of tries there and we scraped back. (With a) couple of turnovers they invited us back into the game.”