YORK Knights centre James Glover feels that his loan move to Sheffield Eagles has “come out of the blue.”

The 29-year-old returned to the Betfred Championship play-off hopefuls on loan until the end of the season in part of a swap deal with versatile outside back Jason Bass on Wednesday, who is now back with the Knights.

Neither loan has a call-back clause, with both Bass and Glover able to face their respective parent teams.

Able to operate at centre, wing or full-back, Bass had previously enjoyed a fruitful spell in York, scoring 13 tries in 43 matches between 2019 and 2021 – eight of which helped to steer his side to a third-placed finish in his debut season.

The move has shocked many fans, who whilst they are happy to see a player of Bass’ quality back at the LNER Community Stadium, are surprised to have seen both an experienced centre and York’s kicker for the majority of the season, head out of the door.

In his first interview back at Sheffield, Glover also seemed to have been rather unhappy with what he felt had been an unexpected move.

“It’s a bit of a weird [move],” he told the club.

“Obviously I’m excited to be here but it’s come out of the blue a bit really.

“I got a call last night (Wednesday), York were wanting an experienced winger and they decided to obviously send me this way.

“But Sheffield are obviously going really well in the league and I’m excited to be a part of the group.”

Like Bass at York, Glover had previously made his mark in South Yorkshire before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Barrow Raiders at Summer Bash in 2019 that kept him sidelined for nine months.

During that, he missed out on a trip to Wembley, and could be set to again should York triumph in their AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Semi Final against Batley Bulldogs on July 23 (3pm).

“I really enjoyed my time [at Sheffield],” he explained. “It was one of the best times of my playing career, but it was cut short with that season-ending injury.

“I missed out on playing at Wembley, and now I’ll potentially miss out on playing at Wembley this year but it’s just one of those things.”

Glover has been sidelined since June 9 with a knee injury suffered in the Knights’ 40-10 thrashing in South Yorkshire but admitted that despite head coach Andrew Henderson saying that he was “not 100 per cent”, he was fit and available to play against Halifax Panthers last Sunday.

“I smashed my knee on the surface and I popped my bursar in my knee – it’s a fat pad in your knee – so all the fluid came out and I had a bit of fluid on my knee for a couple of weeks,” Glover continued.

“I had a doctor shove a needle in and drain it all off last week.

“I was fine to play at the weekend, I had a full week of training last week and I was fit and ready to go at the weekend.

“Obviously Hendo went with a different way and a different team and that’s fair enough, but I’m ready to go, so hopefully I can put my hand up for next week and I’m ready to go.”