BRADFORD Bulls’ interim boss Lee Greenwood has confirmed when new signing Jason Baitieri will be available.

The Odsal side announced the capture of the experienced forward at the beginning of May for the remainder of the 2023 season, but the 33-year-old suffered an injury in his final appearance for French Elite One outfit FC Lézignan XIII.

Baitieri has yet to feature for Greenwood’s side, however the latter revealed that it won’t be too long before the Frenchman arrives in West Yorkshire.

Speaking after Bulls’ 52-14 defeat at Toulouse on Saturday evening, Greenwood said: “He’ll (Jason Baitieri) be coming over with us after the Keighley game. He’s been running now for a good few weeks, so hopefully he’ll be able to join in with training that week and then we can take it from there.

“It will be a big boost for us. We signed him a while ago, but he got injured in his last game playing in France.

“He’s a good player, a brilliant professional and he’ll fit in nicely in a couple of roles, especially now that Bodene (Thompson) is leaving. We are trying to build our own identity, but injuries have created problems with inconsistency in the lineup and it’s meant that we’ve had to go to the loan market rather than using permanent players. However, Jason will add to that now.”

Reflecting on his side’s performance in the South of France, Greenwood said: “Obviously, it’s disappointing. We came here to not just compete, but to win. Some teams come to Toulouse and roll over, and we’ve done the same.

“The challenges have risen over the last five or six weeks and this was obviously a step up again. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to rise to this latest challenge and we took a dip in our performance level, so that’s what you get when that happens.

“Toulouse are obviously a fulltime outfit, and they were at home, so it’s a tricky one before you even start the game. You have to get a lot of things right to put yourself in a position where you can compete and compete to get a result. However, we didn’t do a lot of the things that allow you to do that and that’s why we didn’t come away with anything.

“We had an off day, both collectively and individually. Unfortunately, when you have an off day in Toulouse, then they’ll punish you.”

Giving his thoughts on Brad England’s sending off, who lost his cool and threw a punch, Greenwood said: “You see it a lot of times when teams come over here; teams lose the game physically and then try and react by doing the tough thing or the thing that makes it look like they’re putting effort in. The right thing to do is get your body in front to start with, so that you’re in place to win a tackle.

Both Jordan Baldwinson and Keven Appo appeared to come off with injuries, and Greenwood confirmed that the former will need checks to understand the severity of it, saying: “Jordan has done something to his knee when going into a tackle. It’s something that we’re going to need to look at during the week, with a view to seeing how long he’ll be out for. It’s rugby for you and that’s what you have a big squad for.

“We were concerned about Keven but he is all good.”

Discussing Tom Holmes’ absence from the squad, Greenwood said: “He’s got a long-standing knee injury from when he was out a while ago, so it’s an ongoing process with trying to get it right so he can manage games better. Sometimes he can manage the injury through a game, sometimes he can hobble around and get on with it, but last week that wasn’t the case, and we didn’t want to take the risk against Toulouse.

“He might be back next week; it might be longer, but he’s improving it and we are continuously looking at ways to manage it.”

Greenwood also gave his thoughts on Jack Walker, who was included as a loan edition to Bradford’s squad despite leaving the club recently to join Hull KR.

He said: “We will continue to look at the situation generally. Hull KR got a new fullback in last week and he seemed to have played well, hence why Jack was allowed to play with us. We’ll have to discuss what we do behind the scenes, especially if we’ve got our own players back like Tom Holmes and Billy Jowitt returning. If that’s the case, then we’ll most likely favour our own players. We’ll have to see.”