{"id":402376,"date":"2026-01-09T17:01:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402376\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T17:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:01:31","slug":"broncos-receive-boost-as-star-is-cleared-to-play-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402376\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos receive boost as star is cleared to play &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/brisbane-broncos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brisbane Broncos<\/a> enforcer Pat Carrigan has been cleared to travel for the World Club Challenge after it was revealed he played through a broken thumb during the club&#8217;s drought-breaking premiership campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Carrigan carried the injury throughout the Broncos finals run, keeping the issue under wraps as the Broncos snapped a 19-year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> title drought with their grand final triumph over Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/teams\/qld-maroons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maroons<\/a> forward was spotted wearing a wrist brace during the off-season, prompting questions around his fitness, but it has since emerged the damage occurred earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The injury was suffered in Brisbane&#8217;s Round 24 win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> at Suncorp Stadium, where Carrigan was advised surgery would rule him out for the remainder of the season with an estimated eight-week recovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Instead, the 28-year-old opted to push on.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-143769\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"NRL Rd 1 - Panthers v Broncos\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-1470929080-scaled.jpg.webp.webp\"\/>PENRITH, AUSTRALIA &#8211; MARCH 03: Patrick Carrigan of the Broncos runs the ball during the round NRL match between the Penrith Panthers and the Brisbane Broncos at BlueBet Stadium on March 03, 2023 in Penrith, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He played through the pain for the next three months, featuring in Brisbane&#8217;s fairytale finals run before backing up for the Kangaroos on the end-of-year tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Carrigan eventually underwent surgery upon returning to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> following the national side&#8217;s 3-nil Ashes whitewash of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> and has been managed carefully since.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Broncos coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/coaches\/michael-maguire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Maguire<\/a> confirmed Carrigan has since had a second procedure but will be fit to take on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> champions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/british-teams\/hull-kingston-rovers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hull KR<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> on February 20.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe&#8217;s fine, he&#8217;ll be back in full training soon and he actually trained the other day,\u201d Maguire told the Daily Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThey had to take the wire out, but he&#8217;s good to go and he&#8217;ll be back up and about soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe&#8217;s had a good little break.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane Broncos enforcer Pat Carrigan has been cleared to travel for the World Club Challenge after it was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-402376","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\/402376","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=402376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}