What a shame. I wouldn't have been so bothered if he had left at the end of 2022, but this season he has been really good. Just hope the exit is managed well and doesn't upset the apple cart.

This.
He’s contracted to play for us until the end of next year.
Now we’re obviously not party to how long this has been an issue with TM (but hey, we can all speculate, that’s what a forum is for) - but if we’re going to lose him I’d much rather it be after a tough set of April fixtures. Seems completely backwards to release him now.

Our last multi-game (>3!) winning start to a season was interspersed by us losing a prop (Dodds broken leg?) and we still won the LLS - I’m confident we will cope either way

Didn't Dodds play less than 2 half games in his Wire career? Even Gary Wheeler did more game time.

It was quite a flimsy comparison I’ll admit!

As good as he's been, prop is the one position we can actually cope with a player leaving. Imagine if George Williams decided he wanted to head back to the nrl this season for another crack? Now that truly would screw the season up!!

When our game is based on rampaging props - as it is - there is no such thing as too many. Even if you can't get them all in to every matchday squad, there will always be some injured, suspended and/or in need of a rest. As we have seen all season to this point - not sure there have been any weeks where we have just dropped a prop we didn't need. So this is a blow.

If we can get a quality second row or centre, it may well be of benefit, despite Mikaele's excellent performances.

I'd rather he stayed though.

As he will have played 7 games will he qualify for the GF winners ring that the other lads are inevitably going to get?

I guess the timing has at least 2 factors.
1) the size of any transfer fee being based on immediate(ish) release
2) Ensuring he leaves on good terms so no souring of squad by an unhappy player.
Good as he has been this season I can’t believe he is the difference between us winning something or not.
I’m inclined to the sign a second row as replacement as Wrench is nearing a return whereas I cant see many options to cover 2nd row

Well said. The reason we've been able to manage McGuires ban and Harrisons injury is because we've got an nal of props and they've been ultra effective.

We can't afford to water it down, and we can't afford to keep flogging Vaughan. We should replace like for like, prop for prop.

As good as he’s been let’s not over react, he’s replaceable and I’m confident powell and Fitzpatrick will be all over this and strike when they identify him.

It's very disappointing - he's been excellent this season. I only hope that the club has already got an immediate replacement (either prop or a big second rower) lined up. Allowing a player to leave for compassionate reasons is understandable, letting them leave without a replacement would be very poor.

Given we've presumably been aware of this for a while I'm making the assumption we've been working behind the scenes to secure a decent replacement. Suppose we'll find out later this week......