Hull FC's Jamie Shaul tells fired Lee Radford - 'Im sorry.'

The news was hard to take for Shaul, the Hull-born player who was working as a bricklayer when Radford - then assistant coach - pushed forward his name as a potential Super League talent in 2013.

He earned a first-team contract and, since Radford took on the main job at the end of that year, has gone onto score 93 tries in 166 games for the club as well as earn England honours against France 18 months ago.

Shaul, 27, has also won back-to-back Challenge Cups under his former coach's command and, speaking straight after Radford's dismissal, he admitted: "I’m absolutely gutted.

"It’s really sad. I’ve had him as my coach for my full professional career and he’s the one that got me here in the first place.

"It’s still sinking in. I said sorry to him when we spoke.

"I only live 100 yards down the road from him so I’ll be meeting up with him."

Hull owner Adam Pearson sacked Radford in the immediate aftermath of Thursday's dire result and then spoke live on Sky Sports about the news.

That caused some furore but, after FC slipped to a fourth defeat in five games, Shaul insisted: "We didn’t see what happened on the field.

"He (Radford) came in the changing rooms and I thought he was going to do his post-match talk but he just said he was done.

"We have to take responsibility, 100 per cent. You feel responsible for him losing his job and it’s very tough to take.

"We’ve got to let it sink in, and it will take a while for it to do so.

"We’ve got to get straight back on the horse because we’ve got a game next week. As tough as it is, we’ve got to get on with it."

Hull are due to travel to Huddersfield Giants for another televised game on Thursday night although that could yet be called off due to the coronavirus.