KEIGHLEY Cougars head coach Craig Lingard says he may need to sign up to 10 players during the close season, after losing one of his star players.

Mike Emmett, 31, has signed for fellow Betfred League One club Hunslet on a 12-month contract.

Emmett joined Cougars from York City Knights in October 2016.

He was an ever present for the Cougars during the 2018 Betfred League One campaign, making 26 appearances for the Keighley club, scoring two tries.

Emmett said: "I’m really excited about next year at Hunslet, our aim is to get the club promoted and that’s a challenge I am relishing.

“It was easy decision to sign for Hunslet after speaking to Gary (Thornton, Hunslet head coach), it’s clear where he wants to take the club and I can’t wait to get started.

“I’m really looking forward to playing in front of the passionate fans we have here, they are very vocal and always make themselves heard.

“These are exciting times for the club, Gary and Darren have worked hard to keep the guys who are staying and attract some real quality to the squad.”

Emmett will have some familiar faces as team-mates at Hunslet, after Josh Tonks and Ryan Wright joined the Leeds side in July.

Now Lingard will need to replace Emmett and re-shape his squad ready to improve on their ninth-placed finish this season in 2019.

Prior to his spell at Bootham Crescent, Emmett spent four years with Doncaster RL, helping the club to promotion from League One in 2012 and a shock fourth-place finish in the Championship in 2014.

Lingard said: "I hope to get a couple of players tied up this week.

"It is difficult to say how many players we will need to bring in. I certainly think it will be at least between six or eight, it could even go into double figures.

"Some of our players may be talking to other clubs. That is the nature of part-time rugby league.

"We want to tie down players to contracts longer than 12 months. We don't want to be in this same situation this time next year.

"We have got to be careful not to have too many young kids. I think we need the nucleus of six players with experience and put young players around them.

"We don't know what next season's League One structure will look like yet. We can't even release season tickets yet as we don't know how many games we will have next season."

Lingard also congratulated both York City Knights and Bradford Bulls for their respective promotions from League One this season.

James Ford's York side pipped Bulls to automatic promotion, while John Kear's men won their place in the Championship following a 27-8 victory over Workington Town in the division's play-off final on Sunday.

Lingard added: "The best two teams went up.

"York have been outstanding this year, they deserved to go up. When we played them, I knew they were the best team in the competition. They were the most consistent.

"I'm really pleased for John that Bulls went up too. Unfortunately, we have lost that rivalry between Bradford and Keighley. It is up to us to put a package in place to make sure we can join them in the Championship."

Meanwhile, Cougars' awards evening has been re-scheduled.

The event, originally due to take place last Friday, will now to held on Friday, October 19.

It will take place at 7pm for 7.30pm in the executive suite at Cougar Park. Entrance is free.