“What’s happened?”

Along with the rest of rugby league, Terrell May was asking himself that very question when the news came down the line.

The Roosters prop has been told he is free to leave the club immediately, just six months after signing a two-year extension that more than doubled his salary.

As one of the most improved players in the NRL and a 25-year-old prop in a market short on quality front-rowers, May will attract plenty of interest. But on Friday, club officials throughout the league were asking what had prompted the Roosters to offer their player the chance to seek a deal elsewhere.

As reported by this masthead on Thursday when it broke the news of Trent Robinson’s call to May, there is an element within the Roosters that feels May doesn’t fit into the club’s vision of where it wants to go.

The context of that is two-fold: one is a matter of freeing up salary cap space to enter a volatile player market, the other a 2024 post-mortem in which every aspect of the club went under the microscope.

Terrell May is a surprise addition to the 2025 player market.Credit: NRL Imagery

The implication of the latter is one May and his manager David Rawlings are at pains to dismiss as merely rugby league’s rumour mill does what it does worst – speculates until it is foaming at the mouth.

“The club indicated to us [that] they had depth in that position and they were looking at a different position of player, so we could explore our options in the market,” Rawlings told this........

© Brisbane Times