{"id":334426,"date":"2025-12-08T07:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334426\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T07:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:18:08","slug":"nrl-proposes-lengthy-bans-for-tonga-officials-following-eli-katoa-head-knocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334426\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL proposes lengthy bans for Tonga officials following Eli Katoa head knocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Three Tonga team officials are facing two-year suspensions following the NRL&#8217;s investigation into the incident that forced Eli Katoa out of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Katoa suffered multiple head knocks during Tonga&#8217;s Pacific Championship Test against New Zealand at Auckland&#8217;s Eden Park on November 2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He is continuing his recovery from the head knocks that required him to have brain surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The NRL issued breach notices to the Tonga team&#8217;s head and assistant doctors, and head trainer relating to Katoa&#8217;s on-field treatment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The breach notices propose the head and assistant doctors be banned from working with any club, team or player in NRL and representative competitions for no less than two years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The proposed ban for the head trainer is two years, while the NRL has also handed down a formal warning to the team&#8217;s medical assistant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-11-18\/eli-katoa-to-miss-2026-nrl-season\/106024440\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eli Katoa to miss 2026 NRL season<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Melbourne Storm star Eli Katoa will miss the 2026 NRL season as he continues his recovery from head knocks that forced him to have brain surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The team officials have five business days to respond to the breach notices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;The NRL is continuing to support Mr Katoa and his family during his important recovery,&#8221; an NRL statement read.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;The investigation has identified a number of serious concerns regarding possible breaches of the NRL rules and protocols by a number of individuals in the way that Mr Katoa was treated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;These concerns relate to a possible breakdown in communication between responsible medical and health professionals in relation to the safety of Mr Katoa, including through a failure to share and disclose information that was vital to the health of the player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;The NRL rules and protocols exist to protect player safety and wellbeing and must be followed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Katoa collided with teammate Lehi Hopoate before the Test against New Zealand and then received two more head knocks during the match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He suffered seizure activity on the sideline and was taken to hospital, where he had surgery on a brain bleed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The Storm back-rower remained in Auckland for weeks before returning to Melbourne, where he underwent further testing under the care of hospital specialists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three Tonga team officials are facing two-year suspensions following the NRL&#8217;s investigation into the incident that forced Eli&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[16040,64,63,17652,24243,152341,4895,3899,4466,761,762,158,159,40171,85,26605,231,18559,36988],"class_list":["post-334426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-arlc","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ban","tag-doctor","tag-eliesa-katoa","tag-incident","tag-injury","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-rugby-league","tag-sanction","tag-sports","tag-suspension","tag-test","tag-tonga","tag-trainer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334426","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=334426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}