Barrow Raiders have given winger Shane Toal the chance to play his way back to full fitness in the 2020 season after he became the latest member of their squad to sign a new one-year contract at Craven Park.

Scotland international Toal, who can also play at centre, had his season ruined by injury, as he was only able to make four appearances before damaging his anterior cruciate ligament in the home defeat against Featherstone Rovers at the end of April.

It’s been a disrupted couple of years for the 23-year-old from Ulverston, as he suffered a previous ligament injury during the 2018 season that ruled him out of the start of the campaign just gone.

Barrow will be hoping Toal will make a similar sort of recovery to Luke Cresswell, who returned from a serious knee injury to such brilliant effect from March he ended up winning the club’s Player of the Year award.

Rugby director Andy Gaffney said: “It’s great to have Shane signed up for next season and we feel he’ll really add to what we feel is a really strong squad for us to take on League One.

“It’s been a tough year for Shane, but he’ll be fit and raring to go by the time the season starts and his pace will be causing opponents loads of problems again before long.

“He’s one of the best finishers in the league, as he showed during our promotion season a few years ago and having him back should mean there are some exciting times ahead.

“We have a few key players coming back from long-term injuries that will feel like new signings and if we can get a full year out of them, which we couldn’t do last season, then we should be in a great position next year.”

Toal joins the likes of Declan Hulme, Ryan Duffy and Nathan Mossop in signing up again after suffering an injury-ravaged year and having to watch on for long spells as the Raiders were relegated from the Betfred Championship.

The younger brother of back row Dan Toal has made 67 appearances for Barrow since breaking into their side in 2015.

He was their top try scorer in the 2017 season, as Paul Crarey’s side won promotion to the Championship via a play-off final victory against Whitehaven.

The form of the former Cumbria Storm Academy player that year earned him a place in Scotland’s squad for the Rugby League World Cup and he played in the Bravehearts’ draw against Samoa.