Bulls star Jamie Foster says John Bateman’s move to Wigan came as no real surprise – and has wished the young back-rower all the best.

It was announced on Friday that Bateman had joined the Challenge Cup and Grand Final double winners on a three-year deal with the option for a further year.

While disappointed to lose arguably the club’s best young player, Foster said he could understand Bateman’s desire to compete for silverware immediately.

“I knew it was on the cards,” said Foster as the Bulls squad began pre-season training yesterday.

“I’ve become pretty good friends with John during the past year and I knew it was heading that way.

“He’s a quality player and quality players are going to get chased by quality clubs. At Bradford we are building towards becoming one of those top three or four clubs and John has probably thought ‘I can miss that building process out and jump straight into a top team at Wigan’.

“Wigan are a great club with a big fanbase and I’m sure John will do very well there.

“I really hope he does too because he’s a great guy and there are certainly no hard feelings from us as team-mates because we all got on really well with him.”

Foster says he has been impressed with the new, improved set-up at the club’s training headquarters at Tong and is confident about the season that lies ahead.

The former St Helens man declared: “It’s great to be back in and I’m really excited about this off-season because the plans that are in place look very promising.

“The boys have really bought into it and it’s exciting times. Nobody knows what’s around the corner but we’re just going to give it one hundred per cent and see where we go.”

Bulls coach Francis Cummins, meanwhile, said all of his players who underwent fitness and fat testing last week returned in decent shape.

He said: “The players have all come back in tremendous condition – in better shape than they left actually. That’s extremely pleasing.”

Cummins will also take in a number of World Cup matches this week as he eyes potential new recruits.

He attended Papua New Guinea’s match with Samoa at Hull last night, will head to Scotland versus at Salford on Thursday and New Zealand’s clash with Papua New Guinea at Headingley on Friday.