41-year-old Goodridge set for Warriors debut in Prem Cup

Worcester Warriors’ backs transition coach Jonny Goodridge is set to make his debut for the club aged 41 in tonight’s Premiership Cup game at his former club Gloucester.

Goodridge, who spent six years at Kingsholm before spells at Leeds, Esher and Bristol, has not played a professional game in over nine years.

He is joined by Mat Gilbert on the bench, who retired from playing in April after a career which took him to Scarlets, Italian side Mogliano, Bath, Warriors, Hartpury and most recently Cinderford.

The former England deaf international, who was for a time the only deaf professional sportsman in England, quit the sport to run his own pizza business, but he features as one of five guest players in Worcester’s squad.

Graham Kitchener, who came off the bench in the Gallagher Premiership matches against London Irish and Exeter Chiefs, is the only player in tonight’s matchday squad to have played this season so far.

📋 Our 22 man squad for this evening's trip to Kingsholm.

Featuring @GumbieGilbert and Jonny Goodridge 💪

➡️ https://t.co/sTXX5CJytI pic.twitter.com/MSSuDhhxec

— Worcester Warriors (@WorcsWarriors) September 21, 2022

It is the latest twist in the tale in what has been another dramatic and bizarre week at Sixways.

The deadline for the sale of the club, which current owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham set arbitrarily as 2pm yesterday, has been and gone, and like so many deadlines that have passed there has been no update as to why this has happened.

Additionally, the Daily Mail has reported that the Government stand accused by some creditors of aiding the asset-stripping of the club after companies owned by Goldring and Whittingham seized some of the land on the Sixways site.

And those that run the club’s Twitter account have taken to retweeting and “liking” criticism of the club’s owners, such as this example from defence coach Nick Easter, retweeted by the club’s official account on Tuesday evening.

The number of false promises to staff may well be in double figures now in less than a month. Wonder who will get the blame this time🤔. ‘Computer said no’ maybe https://t.co/R6f9qHy7SR

— Nick Easter (@nick_easter) September 20, 2022

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