{"id":641099,"date":"2026-04-30T18:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641099\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:33:22","slug":"womens-state-of-origin-2026-queensland-maroons-stars-keilee-joseph-makenzie-weale-suffer-head-injuries-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641099\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s State of Origin 2026: Queensland Maroons stars Keilee Joseph, Makenzie Weale suffer head injuries | Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland<\/a> lock Keilee Joseph was taken off on a medicab late in the State of Origin<\/a> opener on Thursday night after copping a heavy blow to the head while going to tackle.<\/p>\n

Joseph was the second Maroons player ruled out with a head injury in Newcastle, after front-rower Makenzie Weale was driven into the ground head-first while taking the second hit-up of the game.<\/p>\n

In the 59th minute of the game, won by NSW 11-6<\/a>, Joseph went low to tackle Blues enforcer Tiana Penitani Gray and her head made heavy contact with the back-rower’s hips.<\/p>\n

AS IT HAPPENED: Women’s State of Origin, game one<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bellamy diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: NRL dynasty could be crushed by Chiefs spending spree<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Keilee<\/p>\n

Keilee Joseph after the heavy collision.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

In positive signs, Joseph remained conscious and was able to be helped to her feet, before a medicab wheeled her off the ground at McDonald Jones Stadium.<\/p>\n

In the opening seconds of the match, Weale was ruled out after storming onto the ball and thundering into NSW<\/a> stars Millie Elliott<\/a>, Keeley Nizza and Yasmin Meakes, who forced her backwards and drove her into the ground. She hit the ground head-first and with great force.<\/p>\n

Weale left the field for a head injury assessment and displayed category one symptoms, ruling her out of the game.<\/p>\n

“We don’t like seeing that, we don’t want players leaving the field, but strong defence,” former NSW star Allana Ferguson said on Nine.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 Women’s State of Origin series live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elliott looked momentarily dazed after clashing heads with Joseph in the 14th minute, but the gun prop didn’t leave the field for a head injury assessment.<\/p>\n

She played her first game since starring for the Roosters in their 2024 NRLW grand final triumph over the Sharks.<\/p>\n

Elliott, the wife of South Sydney forward Adam Elliott, gave birth to their daughter Gigi last September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland lock Keilee Joseph was taken off on a medicab late in the State of Origin opener on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-641099","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\/641099","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=641099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}