{"id":648331,"date":"2026-05-04T04:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T04:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648331\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T04:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T04:55:12","slug":"dolphins-prop-daniel-saifiti-retires-from-nrl-due-to-ongoing-shoulder-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648331\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins prop Daniel Saifiti retires from NRL due to ongoing shoulder problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolphins prop Daniel Saifiti has confirmed his medical retirement after a shoulder issue refused to come good.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old New South Wales powerhouse had surgery last year, and all rehabilitation attempts have not been able to get him to a point where he can play NRL again.<\/p>\n

He is expected to front a media conference this afternoon to formally announce the news.<\/p>\n

Saifiti’s last game for the Dolphins was in round eight against Canberra last year.<\/p>\n

He was the club’s best player in his short stint after signing in 2025, after playing 183 NRL games for Newcastle.<\/p>\n

He represented NSW in seven State of Origin matches and was a key member of the successful sides that won the 2019 and 2021 series.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Daniel Saifiti played seven State of Origin games for NSW, scoring a try in game one of the 2021 series. (Getty Images: Ian Hitchcock)<\/p>\n

A proud Fijian man, he also represented the Bati in three Tests.<\/p>\n

Saifiti’s signing at the Dolphins was a big deal after former Brisbane prop Thomas Flegler had linked with the club the previous year.<\/p>\n

Flegler missed most of the 2024 season and all of 2025 with nerve damage in a shoulder. The Dolphins went close to playing in the finals in both seasons.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

The loss of both last year was a massive blow to their hopes, and they ran out of puff at the back end of 2025.<\/p>\n

Dolphins hooker Jeremy Marshall-King, meanwhile, is set to return for his first NRL game of the season against Canterbury on Thursday night after recovering from a knee injury.<\/p>\n

He is likely to share the hooking duties with in-form utility Max Plath.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins also welcome back five-eighth Kodi Nikorima from suspension.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolphins prop Daniel Saifiti has confirmed his medical retirement after a shoulder issue refused to come good. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,313496,162,3739,3899,7992,146663,761,762,158,2733,159,588,85],"class_list":["post-648331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-saifiti","tag-dolphins","tag-fiji","tag-injury","tag-knights","tag-medical-retirement","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nsw","tag-rugby-league","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648331","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=648331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}