WALES hooker Bradley Roberts is back in pre-season training with the Dragons but his future remains uncertain.
The 28-year-old front rower is out of contract after joining the Rodney Parade club from Ulster in the summer of 2022.
Roberts missed the end of the 2023/24 campaign through injury, listed by the Dragons as a back issue, and saw specialists.
The five-times capped front rower is still being helped by the club’s medical staff with his rehabilitation and has joined the squad as they start preparations for the upcoming campaign, which gets under way with a United Rugby Championship derby against the Ospreys on September 21.
However, the Dragons are well-stocked for hookers after bringing in former Wales Under-20s international Oli Burrows from Exeter to join Elliot Dee, James Benjamin, Brodie Coghlan and Sam Scarfe.
That makes a third season in Newport unlikely for the Durban-born forward.
LIVELY: Bradley Roberts on the run for the Dragons against the Sharks in his native Durban (Image: Huw Evans Agency)
Roberts moved to Rodney Parade in a bid to boost his international career but was overlooked by both Wayne Pivac and Warren Gatland in favour of more physical options.
Nonetheless, the livewire hooker’s performances for the Dragons were impressive and he made 27 appearances over two seasons, crossing for seven tries.
Dai Flanagan’s squad returned for the first block of pre-season on Monday, which started at USW Sports Park in Treforest rather than their Ystrad Mynach headquarters.
Defence coach Filo Tiatia has already made his mark while four new players – Burrows, lock Steve Cummins, flanker/lock Shane Lewis-Hughes, fly-half Lloyd Evans – have linked up with the squad. Centre/full-back Harry Wilson and number eight Solomone Funaki will arrive shortly.
Burrows, who is from Neath and was with the Ospreys before heading for the Chiefs, has a big chance to make an impression in the countdown to the start of the URC.
SIGNING: Dragons hooker Oli Burrows when he was a Wales U20s international (Image: Huw Evans Agency)
“He is massive, a big ball-carrying hooker and will get a lot of game time early on, whether that is with us or in Super Rygbi Cymru,” said head coach Flanagan.
“He is a player that I am super excited about because the game is about big men. I am probably a rugby purist and I like ball-playing and put skill over size, but the rules don’t always allow that at the moment.
“It’s a collision sport and we targeted big men with our recruitment, and also in our pathway. I think we will be a team that wins a lot more collisions.”
The promising prospect is listed as 6ft 2ins and 17st 4lb – taller and heavier than all of the other hookers on the Dragons’ books.
Wales international Dee is recovering from an ankle injury that ruled him out of the summer tour to Australia and he remains in a moon boot.
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