{"id":320897,"date":"2025-12-01T16:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320897\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T16:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:41:15","slug":"nrl-star-forced-into-immediate-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320897\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL star forced into immediate retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sea Eagles hooker Lachlan Croker has been medically retired following a series of concussions, but he won\u2019t be lost to the game after agreeing to take over as head coach of the club\u2019s SG Ball team.<\/p>\n

Croker, who turns 29 later this month, has had his injury concerns throughout his career and was limited to just four NRL appearances last season.<\/p>\n

The call for him to medically retire with a year remaining on his contract comes on the back of several concussions over the past two seasons, with the latest one coming during a training session in June.<\/p>\n

He played one game for Canberra in 2016 before he made the move to Manly where he spent eight seasons and claimed the club\u2019s best and fairest award back in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy body is in good shape, but my head is telling me it\u2019s time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had one too many head knocks, and the last one was the last straw. As hard as I tried to get back playing, I just couldn\u2019t as the symptoms persisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedical advice and the advice from people closest to me helped me arrive at this decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s the right thing to do for my long-term health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news comes less than two months after teammate Josh Aloiai was also forced into early retirement due to a chronic shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

Croker\u2019s decision frees up salary cap space for the club and comes just days after fellow hooker Jake Simpkin inked a two-year extension to remain on the northern beaches.<\/p>\n

While he won\u2019t play for the club again, Croker will remain at the Sea Eagles and work with the next crop of stars coming through the ranks.<\/p>\n

\"Lachlan<\/p>\n

Lachlan Croker will move into a coaching role after he was forced into retirement. Picture: NRL<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Tom Trbojevic celebrates scoring a try with Lachlan Croker. (Photo by Jason McCawley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

His work ethic and passion for the club will make him a terrific leader, with Sea Eagles NRL coach Anthony Seibold excited to see what he can bring to the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great opportunity to keep a recent player and someone with Manly DNA in our pathways program,\u201d Seibold said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLachie is a hard worker, is well-educated, and I think he\u2019ll make a fantastic transition from player to coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only a few years back he was awarded Manly\u2019s best and fairest. The qualities that made him such a great player will serve him well in his next career path as a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to seeing Lachie\u2019s development as a coach over the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sea Eagles hooker Lachlan Croker has been medically retired following a series of concussions, but he won\u2019t be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,55228,180577,16660,761,762,158,4523,85],"class_list":["post-320897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-head-knocks","tag-lachlan-croker","tag-manly-warringah-sea-eagles","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sea-eagles","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320897","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=320897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}