{"id":517407,"date":"2026-03-04T04:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T04:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/517407\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T04:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T04:53:08","slug":"warriors-to-receive-unexpected-early-season-boost-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/517407\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors to receive unexpected early season boost – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealand Warriors<\/a> are set to receive an unexpected early season boost, with Luke Metcalf<\/a> ahead of schedule in his recovery from an ACL injury.<\/p>\n

The halfback suffered the injury during the second half of the 2025 NRL<\/a> season, missing the Warriors’ run to the finals.<\/p>\n

It was a bitter blow for the Auckland-based club, with Metcalf leading the Dally M Medal count prior to his injury.<\/p>\n

His injury saw the Warriors ultimately miss the top four and fall out of the finals in Week 1, losing at home to the Penrith Panthers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tanah Boyd<\/a>, who replaced him after his injury in 2025, will again start the season at number seven for the Warriors, but his time there could be even less than originally tipped.<\/p>\n

Metcalf had previously mentioned Round 7 as his likely return date, but speaking to The Big League Podcast, he revealed that timeline has come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve passed all my testing, so tomorrow I’ll be back. Last week was my first week knowing I’m not really restricted in much, so now’s the good part. I get to actually train with the boys and do all the good stuff,” Metcalf told the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t really have a week, but I know it’ll be pretty early. It won’t be that late, but yeah, not too stressed. I haven’t actually said, oh bang, it’s going to be this date.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve got a few boxes just to tick with the boys. I need some reps and some Ks in the legs, training with the team. Once I get through a couple weeks of that, I think then I’ll be able to maybe put a timeline on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return could mean Metcalf, who was due to face the Titans in Round 7, could now return for a pair of crunch games – both away from home – beforehand against likely top eight teams the Cronulla Sharks<\/a> and Melbourne Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Warriors first four weeks see them play the Sydney Roosters<\/a>, Canberra Raiders<\/a>, Newcastle Knights<\/a> and Wests Tigers<\/a>, with prop Mitchell Barnett due back at some point during those games from his own ACL injury.<\/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":"The New Zealand Warriors are set to receive an unexpected early season boost, with Luke Metcalf ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-517407","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\/517407","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=517407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}