Wounded Warriors sign Raider Murchie

The Warriors have completed a rushed signing of young Canberra forward Jack Murchie to ease their injury crisis heading into the NRL season resumption.

Former Junior Kangaroo Murchie joined the club at their Gosford base on Wednesday night and completed a first training run with his new team-mates on Thursday.

A veteran of three games for the Raiders, the 22-year-old looks a strong chance to be in the Warriors 17 that faces St George Illawarra next week, probably in a middle forward role.

Earlier this week, Cronulla Sharks five-eighth Shaun Johnson backed former teammate Paul Gallen to make a successful return to rugby league should the Warriors take up his offer.

Gallen, 39, retired from the NRL last year after playing 348 first-grade games for the Sharks.

With the temporarily relocated Warriors battling to resolve their front-row, Gallen offered up his services last night..

"The sacrifices they've made, I would consider it," Gallen told radio 2GB's Wide World of Sports radio.

"Look, I only retired last year. I was doing plenty of contact work in training with the (Cronulla) Sharkies up until two months ago."

Even in retirement, Gallen was still a key figure at the Sharks and had regularly been doing contact work with the club before the coronavirus shutdown occurred.

When asked if Gallen could handle a return, Johnson who spent eight season with the Warriors before switching over to Cronulla, said he was "confident" the former NSW captain still had it in him.

"I'm confident, it's Paul Gallen, you can't just switch that off over six weeks," Johnson told NRL.com

"He'd be fine. If it eventuated and It was to happen, I've got no doubt in the world he would be fine.

"I know that whether the Warriors want him or not, I think they should be given every opportunity at an even playing field. Obviously, they've already relocated, they've got men down, anyway they can be assisted in that area, I think they need to be.