{"id":147193,"date":"2025-09-16T10:31:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/147193\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T10:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:31:17","slug":"liam-martin-putting-friendship-with-former-teammates-on-hold-for-semi-final-viliame-kikau-stephen-crichton-injury-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/147193\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Martin putting friendship with former teammates on hold for semi-final; Viliame Kikau, Stephen Crichton injury updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panthers<\/a> gun Liam Martin admits he’s tempted to target close friend and former teammate Viliame Kikau<\/a>, who will again play through a facial injury in Sunday’s semi-final between Penrith and Canterbury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Penrith’s quest for a fifth consecutive premiership<\/a> victory has not been the easiest of tasks, although they are just two wins away from playing in the big dance once again.<\/p>\n

Just one major injury concern has emerged since they qualified for the finals, with Mitch Kenny still looking to make a recovery from a hamstring injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the same cannot be said for their looming rivals, the Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TEAMS: Dogs leave door ajar for Crichton miracle<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ange’s $43m gift to Spurs unwrapped<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Two female jockeys investigated over ‘white powder’ videos<\/a><\/p>\n

Stephen Crichton has not yet been ruled out for the entire season and nor has Marcelo Montoya as coach Cameron Ciraldo named the pair in the reserves to face Penrith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair’s absence has forced Matt Burton to the centres while Toby Sexton takes on the No.7 jersey and Reed Mahoney returns to his role on the bench. <\/p>\n

But the fitness of Viliame Kikau was one Martin was most eager to learn about. <\/p>\n

\"Viliame<\/p>\n

Viliame Kikau of the Bulldogs is tackled by Liam Martin of the Panthers.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

A facial injury has not ruled Kikau out of any match over the past three weeks and the star back-rower is determined to not hit the sidelines in the second week of finals.<\/p>\n

The Fijian international was left with a swollen eye after last week’s qualifying final defeat but has refused to have an x-ray<\/a> to determine the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canterbury general manager Phil Gould insisted the injury was no worse to the one he suffered to his face just a week prior against the Cronulla Sharks.<\/p>\n

Informed of Kikau’s decision to not get an x-ray to avoid anyone learning he has a fractured eye socket, Martin admitted he was not surprised.<\/p>\n

“He is just so tough,” Martin told media on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“His toughness is probably underrated. It doesn’t surprise me one bit.”<\/p>\n

Martin has been great mates with Kikau since the pair lined up together during the now-Bulldogs star’s time at the Panthers.<\/p>\n

The pair won two grand finals together during that time.<\/p>\n

Martin is tempted to target Kikau in the Accor Stadium clash.<\/p>\n

“I’ll try to,” Martin said.<\/p>\n

“But I don’t know, he’ll still give it his all,” he said.<\/p>\n

“His toughness can’t be underestimated. I’ll still go out there after him…<\/p>\n

“I always look forward to the battles with Kiks because he is such a quality player and he is one of the best back-rowers ever.<\/p>\n

“I enjoy playing up against him and I’m sure he’ll be looking forward to it, as well.”<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/p>\n

Brian To’o of the Panthers and Stephen Crichton of the Bulldogs embrace.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Burton and Crichton are two others that will be at Accor Stadium on Sunday in different colours to Martin.<\/p>\n

And although Crichton may not take to the field, Martin could not help but admit his sorrow for the Bulldogs skipper, given his syndesmosis diagnosis.<\/p>\n

“You don’t wish injury on anyone, especially someone that we played with,” Martin said of Crichton’s injury.<\/p>\n

“Really disappointed for him. He is a massive loss. I really feel sorry for him.<\/p>\n

“This time of year, you want to play against sides at their full capability because you want to play the best. That’s why we play the game.<\/p>\n

“(Burton’s) strength is his running game so if he is out (on an edge) we will have to do a job on him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers gun Liam Martin admits he’s tempted to target close friend and former teammate Viliame Kikau, who will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-147193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}