{"id":318670,"date":"2025-11-30T13:54:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318670\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T13:54:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:54:34","slug":"injured-melbourne-storm-star-eli-katoa-hopeful-of-nrl-return-after-brain-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318670\/","title":{"rendered":"Injured Melbourne Storm star Eli Katoa hopeful of NRL return after brain surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eli Katoa remains hopeful of returning to the NRL, with Melbourne Storm<\/a> saying his recovery from brain surgery<\/a> is \u201cgoing well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Katoa was ruled out of the 2026 NRL season<\/a> after undergoing emergency surgery in New Zealand to treat a brain bleed suffered while playing for Tonga in the Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n

The Storm second-rower\u2019s career was thrown into doubt after he suffered three head knocks in 90 minutes<\/a> and required oxygen on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Katoa spent more than two weeks in hospital before consulting with specialists in Melbourne, who advised he not play next season.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old is continuing his rehabilitation and recovery under the watch of the Storm medical staff, and said he hoped to play again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m back at home at the moment and I\u2019m in a good place now,\u201d Katoa posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\"EliEli Katoa has issued an emotional health update with some confronting images. Credit: @eli.katoa\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cMy recovery is going well and hopefully I can keep ticking all of the boxes that I need!<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to the Storm fans, in God\u2019s timing \u2018I\u2019ll be back soon\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katoa thanked people for their messages and prayers, and the Storm club for its support.<\/p>\n

\u201cA special thank you to the Storm for all of the help and support that you guys are continuing to provide, I appreciate it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Ryan Papenhuyzen, who also won\u2019t play with Melbourne next season after walking away from his contract, was one of Katoa\u2019s teammates to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth is wealth king, look after yourself my bro,\u201d wrote the star fullback, who has also endured career-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

And Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes said: \u201cMy bro \ud83d\udc9c\u201d, while Penrith superstar Nathan Cleary was one of the many other big-name stars to like the message.<\/p>\n

Katoa\u2019s post included some confronting images of him in hospital, and also showing where his head had been shaved for the surgery.<\/p>\n

The loss of Katoa and Papenhuyzen, representative prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona and promising half Jonah Pezet puts a dent in Melbourne\u2019s aspirations of winning a title after two successive grand-final losses.<\/p>\n

The Storm will receive salary-cap relief for Katoa, but the Dally M second-rower of the year is almost impossible to replace.<\/p>\n

The NRL has completed an investigation into Tonga\u2019s handling of his injuries, but is yet to release its findings.<\/p>\n

Katoa appears to have no hard feelings towards the Tongan camp, thanking the organisation in his post.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eli Katoa \u2018struggling to process\u2019 devastating health situation<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Melbourne Storm issue sad update on much-loved star<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli Katoa remains hopeful of returning to the NRL, with Melbourne Storm saying his recovery from brain surgery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,1625,4466,761,762,158,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-318670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lifestyle","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318670","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=318670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}