CENTENARY champions Wigan will vigorously fight Barrie Jon-Mather's injunction for alleged restraint of trade.

The 23-year-old Wigan forward is taking the Central Park giants to court after they insisted on compensation when he agreed a three-year deal with Australian club Perth City Reds - and blocked his move Down Under.

Mather is unable to play for Perth because Wigan have retained his registration with the RFL and have transfer-listed him at £150,000.

Now Mather is taking legal action - the case will be heard in the High Court on Thursday - to enable him to fulfill his ambitions in Australia. But Wigan chairman Jack Robinson said: "I really can't comment about it because I don't know the full facts of the story, but he's quite entitled to seek whatever legal representation he wants to make.

"But there's no doubt about it, a contract's a contract. It's not a case of a contract when he wants it to be and not a contract when he doesn't want it to be. He's still a Wigan player." "I don't like going to court - that should be the last resort - but we're not afraid to go."

Mather, who has been involved in a tug of war between the two clubs since leaving Wigan early last month, said: "I believe Wigan's action represents a restraint of trade because I cannot honour the three-year contract I have agreed with Perth."

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