{"id":716815,"date":"2026-06-05T11:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/716815\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:15:15","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-kalyn-ponga-shoulder-injury-queensland-maroons-knights-vs-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/716815\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026 | Kalyn Ponga shoulder injury, Queensland Maroons; Knights vs Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kalyn Ponga<\/a> sent a scare through Queensland Maroons<\/a> camp after he went down clutching at his shoulder in Newcastle\u2019s clash with the Storm<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ponga had two horror moments early in the second half when he threw a risky pass to Greg Marzhew deep in the Knights<\/a>\u2032 defensive territory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga holds his shoulder.\u00a0Fox League<\/p>\n

Marzhew dropped the ball and no urgency to kill the play as Alec MacDonald raced past him and picked it up before finding Jahrome Hughes<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Hughes shrugged off Ponga in a one-on-one attempt and raced away to score. <\/p>\n

The try ultimately cost the Knights the lead as Ponga clutched at his shoulder on the ground. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis doesn\u2019t look good for the Knights,\u201d Kevin Walters<\/a> said on Fox League. <\/p>\n

\u201c… he got his body and head in the wrong place there.\u201d <\/p>\n

The replay showed Ponga had landed heavily on his shoulder before he was attended to by medical staff. <\/p>\n

The Queensland and Newcastle fullback played on in the aftermath and had another shaky moment in the next set. <\/p>\n

Hughes put up an awkward kick with Ponga unable to grab it on the full. Cameron Munster<\/a> was unable to hit the ball back to his teammates as Ponga cleaned up possession and took the ball dead. <\/p>\n

Notably, the fullback was clutching at his face while Joe Chan held on to him. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga clutches at his face.\u00a0Fox League<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t look comfortable, does he?,\u201d Walters said.<\/p>\n

Post-match, coach Justin Holbrook confirmed Ponga was receiving treatment. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s real sore, he\u2019s getting some work on it now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c… I think it might just be one of those burners, hopefully that\u2019s all it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Ponga managed to avoid trouble after a try-saving tackle he made on Will Warbrick looked like a shoulder charge. <\/p>\n

The referee and Bunker didn\u2019t see it that way though with play allowed to continue. <\/p>\n

\u201cKalyn Ponga definitely has a technique problem with his tackling … but he made contact with the ball,\u201d Greg Alexander said at half-time. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga’s tackle on Will Warbrick.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Cooper Cronk added that Ponga needs to be cautioned about how he tucks his arm when tackling.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got some challenges when doing cover defence,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kalyn Ponga sent a scare through Queensland Maroons camp after he went down clutching at his shoulder in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-716815","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\/716815","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=716815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}