Luke Gale has told Bulls coach Francis Cummins he is ready to play against Wigan on Friday – less than a week after losing his mother.

Gail Gale passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning after a fight with cancer, forcing the England Knights scrum half to miss the home defeat to Warrington.

Yet Gale was back at training yesterday and Cummins said: “Luke has told me he’s playing on Friday.

“We’ll see how it goes and we’ll speak to him again during the week but I’m expecting him to want to play. He just wants to get back into training and control what he can control.”

Gale, 25, is a highly popular member of Cummins’ squad and not all of his team-mates were aware of his mother’s illness.

Cummins added: “I’ve not experienced what Luke is going through but there’s no doubt it brings home what’s important.

“He’s lost his mum and she was immensely proud of Luke anyway – so now there has to be fire in his belly to keep going. Luke’s a great guy and there have probably been a couple of times in the last couple of months where there have been a few things out of character, although nothing major.

“Some of the players didn’t know – and he didn’t want them to know – and you have to respect that.

“Now they know, they’ve thought ‘maybe I understand now that odd time where he blew up or he wasn’t quite on it.’ Apart from that he’s been really good.”

Cummins is hoping Jamie Langley, Brett Kearney, Chev Walker and Oliver Roberts will shake off knocks but Jarrod Sammut and Tom Olbison are set to remain sidelined.

Following the acquisition of Garreth Carvell and Dale Ferguson for next season, Cummins is continuing to scour the market for further signings.

He is making steady progress behind the scenes in his recruitment drive but confirmed Catalan playmaker Thomas Bosc was not on his radar.

Alex Mellor, who made his first-team debut against Warrington on Sunday, and Nathan Conroy trained with the first-team squad yesterday.

Cummins added: “Alex and Nathan have done some really good stuff in training.

“They’re both fairly quiet anyway, so they’re still bedding in, but they certainly didn’t look out of place.”