Jordan Cox (27 May 1992 – 30 April 2020) was an English

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who last played for

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

. His main position was . He had also played in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

for the

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

, the

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sh ...

and the

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warrington Z ...

. He had also appeared for

Newcastle Thunder The Newcastle Thunder are a professional rugby league club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They play in the Betfred Championship competition, the second tier of rugby league in the United Kingdom. They play their home matches at Kingsto ...

, Halifax and the

Sheffield Eagles The Sheffield Eagles are a professional rugby league club that play in the Championship (rugby league), Betfred Championship. The club play their home games at the Olympic Legacy Park (OLP) on the former site of Don Valley Stadium, their forme ...

outside of the Super League.

Career

Cox made his first team debut for the

on 8 May 2011 away to

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC (known as the York City Knights from 2002 to 2022) based in York, England. The Knights played their home games at Huntington Stadium before moving to Bootham Crescent. ...

, in the

2011 Challenge Cup The 2011 Challenge Cup (also known as the Carnegie Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 110th staging of the most competitive European rugby league tournament at club level and was open to teams from England, Wales, Scotland, France and R ...

. On his début he looked confident and managed to get himself onto the scoresheet twice, after making his debut in the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

he then went on to make a further 6 appearances in the

competition, earning himself a call up to the

England Knights England Knights (previously known as Emerging England and England A) is considered the feeder team for the England rugby league team. The Knights play a key role in the development of emerging talent, allowing players to gain experience in an i ...

squad, which he later had to pull out of for post-season surgery. At the start of the 2012 season, Cox played in 8 of the first 12 games earning himself a regular spot in the

starting 17, until the beginning of May. When during an U20s game, his spleen ruptured causing him to miss 3 months of the season. However, although it was initially thought of as a season-ending injury, he quickly progressed through the rest and rehab stages and later made his comeback against the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

. Between 2013 and 2015 Cox played for

, Halifax and the

on loan. After being signed, he made 18 appearances for the

; again in the

. Cox penned a one-year deal with

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

outfit

in January 2017. After playing 9 games in 2017 for the Sheffield Eagles, Cox joined League 1 side

on loan until the end of the season. He scored on his debut for them in a 28-18 home victory against

Workington Town Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in west Cumbria. Their stadium is Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team. They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 and ...

. At the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

Cox was released by the Sheffield Eagles.

Personal life

Cox died at his home in Hull on 30 April 2020, aged 27. No cause of death was made public at the time of his death, but the circumstances were described as "non-suspicious". An inquest in January 2021 was informed that death was due to an accidental drug overdose.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Jordan 1992 births 2020 deaths Drug-related deaths in England English rugby league players Halifax R.L.F.C. players Huddersfield Giants players Hull Kingston Rovers players Newcastle Thunder players Rugby league players from Kingston upon Hull Rugby league props Sheffield Eagles players Warrington Wolves players York City Knights players