Stefan Ratchford admits he is hopeful of finishing his career at Warrington – and playing on well into his 30s – after agreeing a new long-term contract with the Wolves.
The 31-year-old will be at the club until at least the end of 2022 after signing a new contract that will take him through a decade of service for Warrington.
Ratchford will be 34 when that contract ends, but he told League Express that he has no desire to move anywhere else: or to hang the boots up when his latest deal finishes.
“We’ll see how the body is,” he said.
“I feel good at the moment. I still feel like I can contribute and if the body is good, there’s no reason why I wouldn’t carry on.
“Ideally, having done eleven years here by then, I wouldn’t want to go somewhere else at 34 and set up a new start somewhere.
“It’d be nice to finish off here but you can never say never because it depends on so many different things. Hopefully I’m here for the rest of my career though.”
Ratchford continued: “It was a relatively easy one to do to be honest. I was heading into my last year and the offer came up, and it wasn’t a difficult decision in terms of what I wanted to do.
“To get that done so early and not have the pressure of being out of contract at the end of the year is great. This club remains something I want to be a part of.”
Ratchford appears to have long-term competition at fullback following the emergence of Matty Ashton at the start of the new season.
The former Swinton youngster has excelled in the opening two games of the season, and Ratchford said: “He’s an unbelievable player.
“Considering he’s new to the game, he’s got a lot of growth in him which is quite scary. I don’t think I’ve seen many faster, and he’s got that instinct to get places where most people can’t.
“There’s exciting competition for places and the more of that we have, hopefully it will increase the team’s performance.
“I’m sure it’s a headache the coach would want to have rather than one person in each position not performing well.
“You know now that you’ve got to perform to keep your place and whatever decision Pricey makes, someone is going to have to miss out along the way. We’re very much team-first here though.”
