YORK City Knights have conceded they are not likely to see Ian Bell back at Huntington Stadium.

The controversial former Super League star returned to the club in the second week of this season just days after being released from prison, and played three consecutive matches in the Northern Rail Cup.

However, after being rested for the Knights’ record Challenge Cup win over Northumbria University on March 6, he took time away from the club due to illness and personal reasons – and he has not been back since.

Knights boss Dave Woods had initially kept in contact with the 28-year-old, but The Press understands the player has not returned messages and calls for some time, and so the club have finally admitted that, while the door is not firmly closed, he no longer figures in their plans.

Bell’s departure would not surprise many given his track record in the game.

He played for both Hull and Hull KR’s first teams, before he was banned from rugby league for life in 2004 after allegedly punching and kicking an opponent and threatening a referee while playing in the amateur game.

That ban was overturned in 2008, which allowed him to join Featherstone, after which he moved to Barrow, only to return to Rovers in May 2009 after alleged disciplinary issues.

Again failing to settle, he joined York in July 2009 – but his time at Huntington Stadium has been somewhat patchy.

He played only two games at the end of the 2009 campaign and, although he attended the Knights’ opening pre-season training session that November, he was not seen at the club again until the latter stages of the 2010 season, after his release on prison licence that August. He had served half of a 12-month sentence for assault charges.

He played one play-off match but was ruled out of the Championship One grand final after being remanded in custody, later admitting a charge of battery and being handed another jail term, this one for 84 days.

He was nevertheless given a new pay-as-you-play contract for 2011, with Woods optimistic the troubled star could make a successful comeback to rugby league, but that has seemingly not materialised.