{"id":573332,"date":"2026-03-30T03:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/573332\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T03:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:01:13","slug":"all-blacks-star-tamaiti-williams-super-season-over-after-spinal-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/573332\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks star Tamaiti Williams’ Super season over after spinal infection"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks prop Tamaiti Williams will miss the remainder of Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> after he was diagnosed with a spinal infection.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders on Monday revealed Williams’ campaign was done, the front-rower admitted to hospital with discitis, an infection in one of the discs in his spine.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a sore back for a couple of weeks and had to come in for some scans and blood tests,” Williams said via a Crusaders statement.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

“They found an infection in my back called discitis, which means I’m going to be on antibiotics for a pretty long time. Unfortunately, my Crusade for 2026 is over.”<\/p>\n

Despite his disappointment, Williams said his situation could have been worse.<\/p>\n

“I’m feeling gutted, but I’m also grateful that the news isn’t as bad as what it could be,” he said. “Being in hospital, you see a lot, and it makes you appreciate that this place is here to save us. I’ve been told I’m going to make a 100% recovery, so I’m thankful for that.”<\/p>\n

Williams could yet miss some of the Test season under new All Blacks coach Dave Rennie, with the Crusaders confirming that his future beyond the Super Rugby season remained unclear.<\/p>\n

The loosehead prop has become one of the key pillars in the All Blacks’ scrum in recent years, establishing himself as New Zealand’s first-choice No. 1 when fit.<\/p>\n

Tamaiti Williams won’t play any further part in the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season\u00a0Michael Bradley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But he has also had his issues with injury, Williams’ latest ailment sidelining him since the Crusaders’ Round 4 win over the Chiefs in Hamilton.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders are back in action on Friday against the Fijian Drua having enjoyed the bye in Round 7 of Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

They sit in sixth place with a 3-3 record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks prop Tamaiti Williams will miss the remainder of Super Rugby Pacific after he was diagnosed with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-573332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573332","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=573332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}