Missing Grundy axed by Oldham

TOMMY GRUNDY has had his contract terminated by Oldham after going AWOL from training.

The 23-year-old hasn’t played for the club since being carried off with a knee injury in a Northern Rail Cup quarter-final defeat at Batley at the end of May.

He has barely been seen at the club since and continued efforts to contact him have reaped no reward, leading to the ripping up of the two-year deal the promising back row man signed when joining from Leigh in October last year.

“Nobody has been able to contact him for months and we have now gone through the formal procedure of terminating his contract,” said Roughyeds chief executive Chris Hamilton.

“We had no alternative. It is a decision that has been forced on us not through our actions, but through his.”

In all, Grundy’s career with the Roughyeds took in 14 appearances, in which he claimed a single try.

While the former Warrington academy man isn’t in the club’s plans for next season, work is underway on creating a squad for the 2009 campaign.

A total of 14 first-team players are on two-year deals, the second term of which will only kick in if Oldham reach National League One via a Grand Final victory later this month.

Preliminary talks are underway with players and agents in a bid to boost that number, both from members of the current squad whose deals expire in November and also from outside the club, now that the anti-tampering deadline of September 1 has passed.

“We are in the process of looking at next year and that is ongoing at the moment,” added Mr Hamilton.

“It isn’t ideal when you don’t know what division you are going to be in, but it isn’t the first time we have dealt with that scenario.”