RUGBY league star Jack Johnson is ready to get back up and running after making the move to Widnes Vikings.
The winger, whose Warrington career was hampered by a badly broken leg, missed out on earning promotion back to Super League with Featherstone Rovers as they lost the Championship Grand Final to Canadian side Toronto Wolfpack.
Now the Audenshaw-based ace, who attended Audenshaw School, is ready to rebuild at the club he spent a loan spell at in 2017.
Widnes will operate on a part-time basis in 2020 after not bouncing straight back into Super League, from which they were relegated in 2018 before a financial meltdown.
But Johnson, 23, is delighted to be working with former Australia coach Tim Sheens.
He said: “I’m really excited about the move.
“Obviously as a club it’s been quite up and down but I’m looking forward to playing my part in this rebuilding process and it’s all very exciting.
“Widnes is still a very big club and I spent a short time here on loan and I honestly loved it.
“The fans were always great to me, even though I was a Warrington player at the time, so that played a huge part in me signing.”
“Tim was also a massive factor as to why I signed at Widnes.
“He’s a huge name in the game and I’m really looking forward to learning from him.
“To win an NRL Premiership and a World Cup, I’m sure he knows a thing or two about
the game which hopefully he can pass on to me.
“Featherstone had a great run and picked up some really good wins, hopefully I can carry on where I left off at Widnes.
“There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t be up there challenging come the back end of the year.”