One of the island’s long-standing rugby clubs has warned it is ‘closer than ever’ to folding its senior men’s team because of a severe shortage of players.

Western Vikings Rugby Club captain Ed Knight made the plea on social media on Wednesday, urging players past and present to rally behind the team and attend training sessions.

In a heartfelt post on Facebook, he wrote: ‘This isn’t really a message I want to be writing out but the attendance at training is getting really poor and it seems to be getting worse and worse.

‘We have been a club which has been struggling with numbers for a long time now and we have always managed to pull it back to stop the senior team from folding. However, we are closer than ever with the numbers that are recently turning up.’

Calling on players across the island to get involved, he added: ‘With the game this weekend, I am putting out a bit of a war cry to get as many people down to training and get the ball rolling again.

‘Bring your mates, bring your brothers, bring people from other clubs, bring your nan if she will put a shirt on for Saturday.’

Ed acknowledged the challenge of low turnouts but said quitting was not the answer: ‘I completely understand that some people don’t want to come to a training session with six people there. But packing in training because other people won’t turn up isn’t really the solution.’

Founded in November 1989 by Tony Gale and Dave Berry, Western Vikings’ home base is behind Peel Clothworkers’ School and the Peel Campsite, with matches played at QEII High School.

The club previously issued a similar rallying call last November, as it continues its fight to keep senior men’s rugby alive in the west of the island.