YORK VALKYRIE coach Leon Pryce is looking forward to having “one of the competition’s best players” in Tara Jane Stanley back available for the second half of the season.
The fullback, who was crowned Woman of Steel in 2023, has not played since rupturing her ACL against Leeds Rhinos in September 2024.
Forced to sit out York’s history-making Grand Final victory the following month (she was instead a pundit for Sky), Stanley’s recovery has not been smooth sailing.
But after almost two years on the sidelines, the England international is set to return for York’s Super Four campaign, which gets underway at Leeds on August 8.
“We’ve possibly got eight players to return to the squad, so competition for places is going to be very, very high,” explained Pryce, who hopes to see his squad step up a level during the second half of the season.
“We’ll have Tara Jane Stanley back in contention. She’s trained really, really hard, and shown a brilliant attitude around the place, and around the girls.
“I’m excited to have her back on the field because I think she’s one of the competition’s best players.”
A key cog of the Valkyrie’s success, the club has understandably exercised caution over the 32-year-old’s return.
But Pryce stressed: “We’ve not been holding her back.
“There have been complications around her rehab and return to play process from a complicated ACL injury that could have finished her career potentially.
“There have been setbacks along the way, but she’s handled it amazingly well, and we’ve come up with a programme and a return to play process that puts her right.
“We didn’t want to have a higher risk of re-injury – there’s always risk – but we wanted to lower that risk as much as possible and give her the best chance to play on for the rest of her career and have another four or five years at it, and to live the rest of her life with a healthy knee.”
“That was our priority – not to rush her back to play again.
“It’s a long-term project with Tara, so now, coming into these next set of games, she’ll be alright to play.”