LONDON - Former Kangaroo Matthew Johns has confirmed he will leave English club Wigan to take up a two-year NRL deal with Cronulla.
Wigan said the stand-off will be leaving at the end of this season for compassionate reasons.
Johns' wife has her mother and sister both ill in Australia and he
requested his release from the remaining year of his contract.
"I promised Matthew that, if family health problems required him to return to Australia, then I would not stand in his way," said the Wigan chairman, Maurice Lindsay. "We pride ourselves on being a family club."
Johns has pledged to do his best to go out on a high. "We have got a very good chance of winning the title and I will be doing everything I can to help achieve this," he said.
Wigan will now step up their search for a quality stand-off to replace Johns, which will probably mean looking overseas.
They have been linked with Ben Walker, the former Brisbane and London player, who could be left stranded if the Northern Eagles' financial problems force them out of Australia's National Rugby League, but Lindsay has denied any approach for him.
A more intriguing possibility is that the Australian captain, Brad Fittler, who is retiring from representative rugby after this autumn's Kangaroo tour, might be tempted to try his hand in Britain.
He remains under contract at the Sydney Roosters, but could be sufficiently unsettled to want a change of scene – in which case Leeds would be Wigan's obvious rivals for his services.
- INDEPENDENT
