{"id":512632,"date":"2026-03-01T22:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T22:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/512632\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T22:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T22:16:09","slug":"cowboys-star-set-to-undergo-scans-following-cannonball-tackle-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/512632\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys star set to undergo scans following ‘Cannonball’ tackle – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cowboys middle forward Tom Mikaele will be sent for scans following a left knee injury sustained in the NRL<\/a> season opener in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

The on-site assessment suggested a suspected MCL sprain, with pressure applied by Tyson Frizell<\/a> from an awkward angle, allowing the knee to buckle.<\/p>\n

The tackle can also be described as a ‘cannonball’ tackle, where a third defender enters the tackle from a blind angle.<\/p>\n

It is expected that Mikaele will miss anywhere from two to eight weeks, depending on the severity of the damage.<\/p>\n

Cowboys coach Todd Payten<\/a> was left disappointed with the officiating of the incident, indicating that he felt it was worth a harsher call and called for consistency in the rulings.<\/p>\n

“I’m really disappointed with how the Tom Mikaele incident was handled,” Payten said in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

“Considering you know, Kalyn gets up and plays on and Tom’s out for the next six weeks.<\/p>\n

“I’d just like a bit of consistency, but we’ll see what happens through the week.<\/p>\n

“It (Mikaele’s injury) did hurt us. We had to use four interchanges prior to halftime even though the plan was to use three.”<\/p>\n

When asked about the incident, Frizell said there was no bad intent in the injury and hopes it’s not as severe as it could be.<\/p>\n

“I’m not too sure I’ll leave that with them. It’s unfortunate as it’s not something you want to see happen to a player and there was no intent to hurt him in any way,” Frizell said.<\/p>\n

Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater<\/a> was also in the wars during the match, suffering a rib cartilage injury mid-way through the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the crafty fullback was able to play through the pain, he wasn’t able to move freely for his side.<\/p>\n

“He had to get needled. He’ll be sore,” Payten said.<\/p>\n

“Given the nature of rib cartilage injuries, you can needle that.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got two weeks before we play again. I don’t know the severity of the cartilage damage, but it’s certainly inhibited and affected his flow and rhythm.”<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cowboys middle forward Tom Mikaele will be sent for scans following a left knee injury sustained in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-512632","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\/512632","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=512632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}