South Sydney Rabbitohs star forward Keaon Koloamatangi will begin a contract year with limited preparation time on the back of a three-month recovery from surgery.
Koloamatangi is currently away in England with the Australian squad playing against England for the Ashes, but will need a knee cleanout when he returns.
The forward, who shifted from the second row to the middle under Wayne Bennett’s coaching throughout 2025, was one of the bright spots for South Sydney and one of the competition’s most improved players, but did have injury issues throughout the course of the campaign, including an ankle syndesmosis problem late in the campaign, which threatened his spot in the Kangaroos squad.
He overcame that and got back on the field prior to the end of the NRL season, winning his spot to England, and he has now revealed it came with Wayne Bennett’s blessing per Channel 7’s Jelisa Apps, despite the fact he will face surgery when he gets back for a clean out on his knee.
Tonight @7newssyd – Keaon Koloamatangi reveals he’ll have surgery days after the @arlkangaroos tour – 3 mth recovery.
“Wayne was 100% on me playing this. He said don’t worry about surgery it’s the best team you can make and you don’t want to miss the opportunity.#nrl @SENLeague pic.twitter.com/RTw4ej9PWj
— Jelisa Apps (@JelisaApps) October 28, 2025
That means he won’t undergo surgery until November, by which stage the remainder of his teammates not selected for international duty will be back for pre-season training.
Koloamatangi would have been almost two months into his recovery, but instead, he will now only likely be just returning as pre-season trials kick off, cutting his preparation time for 2026 as the Rabbitohs attempt to put an injury-ravaged 2025 campaign behind them and climb off the bottom of the table.