![\"Eli](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/df503288d9dcfea8ca46a5d762de17b83b754ab6.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Eli Katoa posted a photo of himself from his hospital bed to inform his fans he was recovering.Credit: Instagram<\/p>\n
While there has been plenty of debate about why Katoa was allowed play, questions will be asked about the lack of game-day communication and why Tonga\u2019s medical staff were not shown vital TV footage that could have prevented an incident that has left a player seriously injured in hospital and hurt the image of rugby league.<\/p>\n
Coaches rarely watch the live broadcast and therefore are unaware of what is being said on commentary during the game.<\/p>\n
The NRL is conducting a thorough review, but not expected to deliver its findings until next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first priority is the health of Eliesa Katoa,\u201d an NRL spokesperson said. \u201cThe NRL Chief Medical Officer is monitoring his condition and is in close contact with the medical experts involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NRL is currently reviewing the circumstances of Sunday\u2019s events in line with usual practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Independent doctors watch NRL matches and regularly rule players out if they display concussion symptoms, but are not required to watch footage before a game including the warm-up.<\/p>\n
Katoa posted a photo of himself from his hospital bed on Monday, and said: \u201cI can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAppreciate everyone for checking in, sorry I haven\u2019t got back to any of you guys, but I really appreciate all the love and messages. Ofa atu.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samoa co-captain Junior Paulo said players would always be reluctant to rule themselves out if they displayed concussion symptoms, so it was always important for the medical staff to make the right call.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cMost rugby league players aren\u2019t going to say \u2018no\u2019 or turn down the opportunity to represent your country or play in the NRL in general,\u201d Paulo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are protocols in place for why you probably shouldn\u2019t be allowed to return to the field, and that\u2019s for the health concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli Katoa posted a photo of himself from his hospital bed to inform his fans he was recovering.Credit:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-260907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260907","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=260907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}