{"id":609425,"date":"2026-04-15T22:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T22:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/609425\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T22:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T22:56:16","slug":"nrl-2026-footy-world-blown-away-after-staggering-news-about-stephen-crichton-return-comes-to-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/609425\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Footy world blown away after staggering news about Stephen Crichton return comes to light"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL<\/a> fans and teammates are marvelling at the ‘super genes’ of Stephen Crichton<\/a> after it was revealed the Bulldogs captain is a genuine chance to play this weekend. Crichton suffered a Grade 5 AC joint injury<\/a> in his shoulder in Round 5, and couldn’t finish the game against the Rabbitohs.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs initially said they expected him to miss at least a month, and even as much as eight weeks. ‘NRL Physio’ Brien Seeney said a Grade 3 injury would normally involve a compete tear of the AC joint, while Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo admitted he didn’t even know the grading went as high as five.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/p>\n

Stephen Crichton could miss just one game. Image: Getty<\/p>\n

There were initial concerns that Crichton could be in doubt for State of Origin 1<\/a> in six weeks time. But the situation has progressed to the stage that he could miss just one game and play on Sunday against Parramatta.<\/p>\n

Ciraldo named Crichton in jersey 23 on Tuesday to give his captain every chance of playing. And it was revealed on Wednesday that he’s a legitimate chance after participating in the Bulldogs’ first major contact training session of the week.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, Crichton has never missed more than one game in a row because of injury since making his NRL debut with Penrith in 2019. He played for the Panthers just two weeks after suffering a gruesome ear injury that required plastic surgery in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/p>\n

Stephen Crichton suffered a Grade 5 AC joint injury.<\/p>\n

(Getty Images)Teammates blown away by Stephen Crichton recovery<\/p>\n

“He trained today, he trained pretty good. I’m hoping he gets out there. Hopefully we see him on the field,” said fullback Connor Tracey.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know how he’s recovered from it so fast, to be honest. I look at it like, ‘I don’t know how you did that, I’ve had a few of them (AC joint injuries) and they can hang around’. He’s got super genes or something. It’s pretty crazy.”<\/p>\n

Crichton and Ciraldo will ultimately make the final call on whether he plays against the Eels, who are 16th on the ladder with two wins. “He trained today and he looked pretty well. I think it’s up to him and ‘Ciro’, they would’ve had those conversations,” said winger Marcelo Montoya.<\/p>\n

“He’s one of those players who’s at the elite level, obviously played Origin, he’s won comps. He knows how to get his body right. If he’s ready, he’s ready, if he’s not, he’s not.”<\/p>\n

On social media, fans were blown away that Crichton was named on Tuesday. Many suggested the Bulldogs might be better served giving him another week off considering how bad the Eels are going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL fans and teammates are marvelling at the ‘super genes’ of Stephen Crichton after it was revealed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,4026,7618,761,762,158,85,4546],"class_list":{"0":"post-609425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bulldogs","11":"tag-cameron-ciraldo","12":"tag-national-rugby-league","13":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","14":"tag-nrl","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-stephen-crichton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609425","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=609425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}