{"id":309672,"date":"2025-11-26T09:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309672\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:57:19","slug":"dolphins-boss-terry-reader-explains-plan-for-tom-fleglers-injury-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309672\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins boss Terry Reader explains plan for Tom Flegler’s injury return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolphins<\/a> boss Terry Reader has provided a positive update on the future of Tom Flegler<\/a>, but concedes the prop is “not out of the woods yet” when it comes to his return.<\/p>\n

Flegler hasn’t played since the early rounds of 2024 due to a nerve injury, with fears over whether he would take the field in the NRL<\/a> again.<\/p>\n

His absence left a gaping hole in the Dolphins’ engine room which has been filled by the likes of Francis Molo and Daniel Saifiti – as well as some unheralded young forwards – but the club may be in line for a boost heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Reynolds defends bold Broncos rebrand despite ‘outcry’<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: England ‘bingo’ backfires as grim Crawley stat laid bare<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: RLPA boss whacks V’landys over ‘short-sighted’ comments<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tom Flegler\u00a0Dolphins<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has now ramped up his training in a bid to play at the start of next year, almost two years on from the initial injury.<\/p>\n

“It’s good to be back,” Flegler told media this week at pre-season training.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a while, so it’s good to go and get back into the groove of things and make a tackle again. It’s still very low level at the moment; since I’ve had the surgery, we’ve ticked every box so far and things are coming along really well.<\/p>\n

“[I have] still got a long way to go on the contact area, but we’re making a start on it.”<\/p>\n

Speaking on 4BC Breakfast<\/a> on Wednesday morning, chief executive Reader confirmed that Flegler would begin “proper” contact training in the new year – but there’s still a while to go before he is able to run out onto Suncorp Stadium in a first grade fixture.<\/p>\n

“It is good news with Flegs,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Obviously when we did buy him, he was playing Origin and for Australia. After four games, he got that really rare nerve injury and it’s been two years for him.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Tom Flegler\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“He’s back on, things have progressed and he’s allowed to do a bit of proper contact after Christmas.<\/p>\n

“Things are looking good, but as you would have heard from his mouth as well, we’re still not out of the woods yet.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting closer \u2026 fingers crossed he will be ready to go to begin the season.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flegler was one of the game’s most feared front-rowers before suffering the injury and joined the Dolphins fresh off a breakout season with the Broncos.<\/p>\n

He featured in Brisbane’s heartbreaking grand final loss to Penrith in 2023 and in the same year, played for Queensland and made his debut for the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

The big bopper isn’t the only interesting watch for the Dolphins next year either.<\/p>\n

Karl Oloapu<\/a> – the former teenage prodigy who signed a big deal with the Bulldogs before going through his own injury struggles – is on the books with the Dolphins for 2026.<\/p>\n

The young playmaker had the world at his feet at Canterbury, but was granted a release earlier this year and returned home to Queensland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old played a handful of reserve grade games for the Dolphins and if he manages to impress early next season, could find his way into the NRL squad.<\/p>\n

The former Australian Schoolboys captain played seven first grade games for the Dogs during his stint at Belmore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolphins boss Terry Reader has provided a positive update on the future of Tom Flegler, but concedes the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-309672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309672","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=309672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}