A really good article in today's WEP (doesn't appear to be online on Wigan Today yet) in relation to Gaz Hock.

He's quoted as saying that he can't wait to play for Wigan again, not being in the successful Wigan team this season "did his head in" and that he was approached by Penrith, but didn't take them up.

He added that he is grateful to Wigan for how the club has been with him and the article quotes IL as stating that there is enough cap space to accommodate Hock for 2011.

Lets hope he repays us by being a monster of a player at the back end of this season. Hope he's ready for some real stick from opposition fans when he returns!

Hock is probabley the daftest player ever to play for Wigan how many time did you see him break and then not look where he was throwing the ball and straight into an opposistion player

I would rather keep any sort of excitement of him returning until I've seen him play.
Not that I'm being downbeat but I was pretty p*ssed off when he got his ban, therefore he must repay the fans, IL, MM by keeping faith in him.

Can't wait to see Gaz back at Wigan.

He'll be handy switching between prop and second row.

Why?

I don't think we can really say anything for certain about England.

From what people are saying he's keeping himself very fit.
That's a long way though from being match fit. It will be a while before he can do 80 mins and could well play off the bench for some time.
It will be good to see him back.

The thought of Hock making his return ( probably off the bench) in "The Big One" could be a Midsummer Night's Dream - if we are playing Saints, Warrington or Leeds. Lima, Hoffmann, Coley, Fielden et al to pave the way, then Gaz to come on and smash his way through....! ( And hopefully not then throw a daft pass!!)

I'm certainly looking forward to his return. We have the squad where we can ease him in gently to begin with, and he could prove to be a very timely boost to the squad midway through the season.

I must admit I've always been a big Hock fan, and I've always been of the opinion that on his day he was the best secondrower in the world. The problem was those days were few and far between. Hopefully under Madge as we've seen with a whole host of current Wigan players, Gareth can increase his consistency levels as well as eliminating the errors from his game.

me too, i was really peeved when he got done for drugs. but he wasn't a cheat (recreational iirc), just brain dead.
hock def deserves another chance and if he does come back we need to get behind him because hes going to get some real stick from opposition speccies!!
i hope the rumors are true and hes bulked up in order to become a moz like player (aggressive and athletic) i think its what our front row needs!!!

Haven't seen the paper yet, but the quotes may be lifted from a full feature in this month's Rugby League World magazine - think Hock is the interviewee for the 'Jamie Jones-Buchanan meets...' bit.