Jarryd Hayne supports Sydney team after hamstring injury scuttles rugby league return

Jarryd Hayne has made his return to the rugby league pitch – just not as he would have hoped – after a hamstring injury scuttled chances for his first game in more than six-and-a-half years.

The 37-year-old was due to make his comeback with the Wentworthville Magpies, based in Sydney’s west, in the third-tier Ron Massey Cup this season, where he was expected to play five-eighth.

Despite signing a one-year contract with the NSWRL earlier this year, the two-time Daly M medal award winner was not named for Saturday’s match with the Ryde-Eastwood Hawks.

It came after medical staff had reportedly decided Hayne would not play while pushing to return from a hamstring injury, but considered him to have a good chance for next week’s bout with the Penrith Brothers.

Despite the last-minute shake-up, the former Parramatta Eel winger was pictured on the sideline’s of Saturday morning’s game at Ringrose Oval in Wentworthville in Sydney’s west.

Haynes he could be seen laughing and shaking hands with people gathered at the stadium, and was standing with his teammates as they sat on the bench as the game got underway.

Once one of the biggest names in NRL after taking the Parramatta Eels to the 2009 grand final, Haynes has not played a rugby league match since he went uncontracted at the end of the 2018 season.

Haynes was charged with two counts of sexual intercourse without consent over an alleged incident on the night of the 2018 grand final, for which he was found guilty at two separate trials.

He was later released from prison in June 2024 after more than a year behind bars when his conviction was overturned.

The 37-year-old has routinely maintained his innocence.

He briefly featured in a Nines tournament on the Gold Coast last month, but was limited due to his injury.

Wentworthville, a third-tier open-age competition below the NRL and the NSW Cup, acts as a feeder club to Parramatta’s NSW Cup side.