{"id":435488,"date":"2026-01-25T00:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435488\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:38:10","slug":"nrl-daily-lehi-hopoate-opens-up-on-collision-with-eli-katoa-first-of-three-head-knocks-what-happened-tonga-brain-surgery-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435488\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL Daily, Lehi Hopoate opens up on collision with Eli Katoa, first of three head knocks, what happened, Tonga, brain surgery, news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sea Eagles young gun Lehi Hopoate has opened up on the accidental collision with Tongan teammate Eli Katoa hours before the gun backrower had to be rushed to hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the Nines Premier League Sat Jan 24 &amp; Sun Jan 24 on Kayo Sports. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hopoate and Katoa collided with one another in the warm ups before a clash against New Zealand late last year.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768365730_454_poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WHAT&#8217;S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the nasty head knock, Katoa was cleared to play but then suffered two more separate head knocks against the Kiwis. <\/p>\n<p>Katoa came to the sideline after the second of those and minutes later, suffered a seizure and was taken to hospital where he was treated for a bleed on the brain.<\/p>\n<p>After undergoing brain surgery, Katoa was ruled out for the entire 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/lehi-hopoate-breaks-silence-on-sickening-eli-katoa-hit-20260123-p5nwim.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">SMH,<\/a> Hopoate explained how the collision occurred.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had mixed emotions because I was at fault for what happened to Eli with his first concussion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Eli Katoa returns to training with Storm | 00:43<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were both going for the high ball, we didn\u2019t see each other and then clashed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knowing what he knows now, Hopoate would have \u201cdefinitely\u201d urged Katoa not to play but his teammate was cleared by the Tongan medical staff and the backrower was desperate to represent his country. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI kept checking on him. For him, because he had the red (Tonga) jersey on, he felt like he owed it to the boys (to play),\u201d Hopoate said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI messaged him a few weeks ago to see how he\u2019s going. I\u2019ve sent him a few gifts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Katoa is expected to be back on the field for the Storm for the 2027 season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sea Eagles young gun Lehi Hopoate has opened up on the accidental collision with Tongan teammate Eli Katoa&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[227412,64,63,689,1365,80681,227411,55228,4466,227410,761,762,1736,158,677,1614,85,3598],"class_list":["post-435488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-accidental-collision","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-brain-surgery","tag-eli-katoa","tag-gun-backrower","tag-head-knocks","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-nasty-head-knock","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-zealand","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-time-offer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435488","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=435488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}