{"id":243499,"date":"2025-10-27T05:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T05:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243499\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T05:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T05:50:13","slug":"liam-wright-departs-queensland-reds-ex-wallabies-captains-injury-plagued-career-what-next-for-flanker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243499\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Wright departs Queensland Reds, ex-Wallabies captain’s injury plagued career, what next for flanker?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One-time Wallabies<\/a> captain Liam Wright has reluctantly parted ways with his beloved Queensland Reds<\/a> after being unable to finalise terms for a new contract agreement.<\/p>\n

The Reds said the split was “amicable” and the 27-year-old flanker is keen to continue his stop-start professional career.<\/p>\n

Wright, 27, has played six Tests for Australia and 86 games for the Reds.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 Autumn Nations Series with every match streaming live and on demand on the home of rugby, Stan Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Liam Wright of the Wallabies takes to the field.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

He was a surprise pick to captain the Wallabies against Wales last year, in Joe Schmidt’s first game in charge.<\/p>\n

Australia won that match but Wright injured his shoulder in the process and he hasn’t been featured in gold since.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been in tears over injury at times but you pick yourself up to work hard, be resilient and go again,” Wright, who was the Reds co-captain, said.<\/p>\n

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“It will be hard not coming into Ballymore nearly every day. Beyond the moments on the field, my fondest memories are around the people, the mates I got to do it with.<\/p>\n

“After you walk into the banter at Ballymore to start a training day, you sweat and bleed together towards a common goal. That’s really the joy I have loved.”<\/p>\n

Injury restricted Wright to just 58 minutes in two Super Rugby games this year.<\/p>\n

Only James Horwill and Mark Loane have captained the Reds more often than Wright (55 times).<\/p>\n

“I was inspired by what it meant to be a Queenslander. I wore that very proudly and never let the privilege of that honour fade,” Wright said.<\/p>\n

Reds coach Les Kiss – who will take the Wallabies job next year – paid tribute to Wright’s contribution.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Liam Wright of the Reds wins lineout ball during the Super Rugby AU grand final in 2020 in Canberra.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“Liam is a true rugby man who lives the values of what rugby is,” Kiss said.<\/p>\n

“He’s been an exceptional rugby player for the Reds. He’s a brilliant person and you understand why the locker room looks up to him. He’s a leader of men. His persistence and resilience are evident on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

“Liam is one of the best I’ve met in the game.”<\/p>\n

\"Lachlan<\/p>\n

Lachlan Hooper of Australia in action in Wellington.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the NSW Waratahs have secured the signature of talented loose forward Lachlan Hooper from the ACT Brumbies.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old from Bathurst is the younger brother of Wallabies star Tom and represented Australia under-20s in 2023.<\/p>\n

“It is great to see a young player of Lachlan’s calibre return to play for his home state,” Waratahs coach Dan McKellar said.<\/p>\n

“Lachlan’s a good young player whose experience of having played in Canberra and in New Zealand will add value to the already excellent backrow players we have at the Waratahs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One-time Wallabies captain Liam Wright has reluctantly parted ways with his beloved Queensland Reds after being unable to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-243499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243499","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=243499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}