PROP idol Rich Hayes answered a York City Knights SOS yesterday and afterwards admitted he loved getting his boots back on - but he said at this stage there were no plans to come out of retirement.

The 34-year-old legend, who retired last month because of an ongoing shoulder injury, unexpectedly donned the shirt once more to help out the Knights - down to 15 fit players for the Challenge Cup tie at Featherstone - in their hour of need.

Loose-forward Danny Seal, due to be out until next month because of work commitments, was a second shock addition to the squad as he wangled time off to make sure the Knights had a full 17 to take on his former club. Afterwards he declared: "What a game to come back to."

Both returning heroes started the match and played their full part in a wonderful win. Hayes as ever worked his socks off, while Seal scored a try to maintain his record of crossing in every Knights' game he's played.

Hayes told the Evening Press: "I was in the gym on Friday and Mick Ramsden (second-row, who was out injured) told me Richard Agar wanted a word. I went round to see him and he asked if I could play, and I said of course I would.

"It was my pleasure to play. It was a brilliant game to play in - it could not have been better."

Hayes admitted the match had reminded him what he was missing, joking: "On Sundays I'm up and down as it is with mood swings because I'm not playing. And this won't have helped. It was brilliant, I loved it."

Hayes, who actually sees the specialist tomorrow to check his shoulder injury, hadn't trained with the club for four weeks and was learning the moves on the way to the ground.

He added: "I played as I've always played - run until I can't run any more. Just after half-time I'd done about my lot. I couldn't really do any more. But it was a fantastic team performance.

"We lost the lead but the lads stuck at it and with the boys we've got at the club, you can never right York off."

As for the question of retirement, he added: "I'm saying nothing. I'll see what the specialist says."

Seal, meanwhile, has not been able to train with the club since the first game of the season because of his new work commitments, which has kept him out of the line-up.

Those commitments were expected to rule him out until April but he said he was to discuss the situation with Agar.

"Hopefully from now on I'll be all right," he said. "I've kept my fitness up but done no ball work, but I really enjoyed it yesterday. It was a great match to come back in."

Updated: 11:11 Monday, March 15, 2004