Former Castleford Tigers and Wakefield Trinity prop Craig Huby's new venture open for business

The 34-year-old spent the majority of his playing career at Castleford Tigers, staying at Wheldon Road for 11 years before moving onto Huddersfield Giants for two seasons.

He joined Wakefield Trinity ahead of the 2017 campaign but was forced to retire last year on medical advice, after he dislocated his shoulder against St Helens in the opening rounds of the 2019 season.

The former Super League prop officially left Wakefield last July but was forced to call time on his career in December.

Huby has now set up a cafe, named Plan Bee, in Castleford town centre, which is now open for business and serving takeaway food and coffee, in line with current Government restrictions.

The former Castleford and Wakefield forward has always had a passion for cooking and even did a part-time catering course during his final year at Trinity to help him prepare for the day he would have to retire.

“I had been advised by the specialist who I had been seeing, and who had operated on me a couple of times as well, he recommended for me to not play again,” said Huby of his decision to retire.

“One big blow on the shoulder could have had pretty bad consequences.

“It was quite a tough time for me anyway with my injury and not being able to use my right hand, having kids and stuff.

“It took me a couple of months after leaving Wakefield to realise that not playing again was a possibility.

“So, I had kind of got my head around it but to hear someone tell you that it still hurt quite a lot.”

On his new venture, Huby continued: “It is pretty quiet at the minute and we are just trying to get our feet under the table and into some sort of routine.

“At the minute, we have been doing prep meals for quite a while now, ever since I left rugby.

“Recently we have started doing afternoon teas, platters and treat boxes.

“With getting the cafe we are doing all different kinds of hot food and sandwiches and an array of different things.”

Huby has been making healthy ‘prep meals’ since retiring from rugby and will now produce those out of his new cafe.

The ex-prop had tried his hand in other industries as his career was coming to an end but they failed to entice him in the same way.

He added: “I have always cooked and been interested in food. I tried joinery and sports massage and stuff like that but I never really enjoyed it as much as playing rugby or cooking.

“So I thought I would just go back to college and get some sort of qualification out of it.

“My last year at Wakefield, I went to college and studied catering and things like that. I did a one-year part-time course, one day a week, so every Friday I would be at college and it went from there really.

“It was something to drop back into just incase and luckily it has been all right for me.

“I started doing prep meals for friends and family initially to occupy myself. It was something to do really and then it took off.

“All this stuff got us thinking about what else we wanted to do and it come out of nowhere but we thought we would give it a go.”

Huby misses the match-day camaraderie, making close to 300 appearances in a 16-year career, but has no immediate desire to get back into rugby through coaching.

“It is not something I have wanted to do,” he said.

“I have been involved at Lock Lane and been with the lads, I have got a few mates there.

“I am probably going to go back now that I have got a bit more time to help out but at this moment in time I don’t want to go any further.

“Having a laugh and joke with the lads is what I have missed most.”