YORK City Knights captain Rich Hayes will bide his time before deciding whether to hang up his boots for good.

The 33-year-old, who said at the beginning of this campaign that it might be his last, has told the Evening Press that he will have a few weeks' rest before making a final decision on whether to end his illustrious career.

However, he admitted it would be galling to call it a day on such a low note as the 50-30 play-off loss to Barrow on Sunday, a defeat which ended the Knights' season.

"It's always a tough decision," he said. "I'm not getting any younger.

"I will see how I feel in a month or two.

"I've got my family to consider but I did not want to go out like this. I want to go out on a high note and I don't want to finish like this. We will see what happens."

Hayes limped out of Sunday's defeat towards the end of the play-off tie as an ongoing ankle injury flared up.

"I've been carrying it for a few weeks," he said. "I thought I would get away with it but I didn't.

"It was a disappointing end. I don't want to make excuses, the better team won on the day.

"I know there are quite a lot of the lads carrying knocks and maybe it was one too many at the end of the day."

The powerhouse prop was one of only two Knights to play in every match this season, the other being Trevor Krause.

"I'm really disappointed to finish off the season the way we have," added Hayes.

"I think we've played some of the best rugby out of all the teams in the league.

"I'm sorry we had to finish on a bad one because I think we've been more than good enough to win promotion. But I suppose if you turn up half-cocked and play like we did on Sunday then on reflection you don't deserve to win it.

"All the players down here feel as badly as the supporters. In fact nobody feels worse then us. We wanted to win this thing."

Whatever Hayes' decision, Sunday's game will not be his last for the Knights as he is to have a testimonial match in the near future to mark his contribution to rugby league, especially with York.

A date for the match and the opponents have not yet been confirmed but it is expected that Hayes' former club, Hull KR, will provide the opposition at Huntington Stadium.

Updated: 11:10 Tuesday, September 16, 2003