{"id":593895,"date":"2026-04-08T18:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593895\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:06:28","slug":"nrl-news-2026-storm-boss-frank-ponissi-provides-remarkable-update-after-tui-kamikamicas-stroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593895\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Storm boss Frank Ponissi provides ‘remarkable’ update after Tui Kamikamica’s stroke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Storm<\/a> footy boss Frank Ponissi has provided a promising update on the return of Tui Kamikamica<\/a> following fears the star prop may never play in the NRL again.<\/p>\n

Kamikamica was discharged from the Royal Melbourne Hospital last week after suffering a suspected stroke and is now receiving treatment in a rehabilitation centre.<\/p>\n

The Storm confirmed Kamikamica had experienced a “medical episode”, with the nature of the incident casting a cloud over his future as a rugby league player.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Origin star’s clouded future after surprise Roosters call<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Crushed me’: Jack launches blistering WADA attack<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Creating the Chiefs: Inside plan to build NRL’s 19th team<\/a><\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Fijian international has been a key player in Craig Bellamy’s first-choice team over the past few seasons, featuring in 142 games since debuting in 2017.<\/p>\n

Ponissi has put an end to speculation around whether Kamikamica will play again.<\/p>\n

“Yes, he will play again, we just don’t know when,” he said in a video posted by the Storm.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“With Tui and the extent of his injury, it is something that we are not going to rush into.<\/p>\n

“He will definitely be back … he just has to go through a lot more rehab and assessments. It is too early to put a date on that at this stage.<\/p>\n

\"Tui<\/p>\n

Tui Kamikamica of the Storm runs the ball.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“He was released out of hospital after a couple of days, which was remarkable.<\/p>\n

“He is now in a rehab centre doing a lot of work. He is very close to being released from there to go home (likely) in the next 24 to 48 hours, which is great news for him.<\/p>\n

“He is doing everything he needs to do, he is recovering.”<\/p>\n

The Storm are already without Eli Katoa for the season after he underwent surgery for a brain bleed that he suffered following several head knocks during the Pacific Championships last season.<\/p>\n

Bellamy is hopeful Katoa will be fit to return to the field as a player in 2027.<\/p>\n

The Storm will face the Warriors on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Storm footy boss Frank Ponissi has provided a promising update on the return of Tui Kamikamica following fears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-593895","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\/593895","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=593895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}