{"id":736874,"date":"2026-06-14T22:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736874\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T22:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:47:12","slug":"devastating-double-blow-for-wests-tigers-as-two-players-could-miss-rest-of-nrl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736874\/","title":{"rendered":"Devastating double blow for Wests Tigers as two players could miss rest of NRL season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wests Tigers\u2019 victory over the Titans on Sunday was marred by another serious injury for Benji Marshall\u2019s side<\/a>, with gun back-rower Kai Pearce-Paul suffering a pec injury. The Englishman walked from the field early in the second half after reeling away from a tackle in which he hung his arm out.<\/p>\n

The Tigers said Pearce-Paul would go for scans, and they\u2019ll be hoping it\u2019s not the worst-case scenario. According to leading physio Brien Seeney, a ruptured pec would require surgery and a three-month recovery, which would be season over for KPP.<\/p>\n

\"Kai<\/p>\n

Kai Pearce-Paul suffered a pec injury in the Tigers’ win over the Titans. Image: Channel 9\/Getty<\/p>\n

Seeney wrote on social media that the \u201ctraumatic nature\u201d of the mechanism and the fact Pearce-Paul was taken from the field immediately would suggest a \u201cmoderate to high grade injury\u201d and \u201cpotentially surgery\u201d, which would be a devastating blow. Tigers teammate Royce Hunt suffered the same injury<\/a> last week, meaning both are in doubt to play again this NRL season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reminded me a lot of the Royce Hunt one,\u201d Seeney said on the \u2018Magic Sponge\u2019 podcast on Sunday night. \u201cThat leads me towards thinking it\u2019s at least a partial tear, which would be 4-6 weeks best case, but it really isn\u2019t looking good for a complete rupture.\u201d<\/p>\n

A silver lining on the situation is that even if Pearce-Paul misses the rest of the NRL season, he\u2019ll likely be back in time for the World Cup at the end of the year. KPP will be one of England\u2019s top players as they seek to knock off the likes of Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\"Kai<\/p>\n

Kai Pearce-Paul and Royce Hunt both suffered the same injury in consecutive weeks. Image: Getty<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai silences critics after Tigers victory<\/p>\n

The injuries to Pearce-Paul and Hunt continue a wretched run for the Tigers, with Adam Doueihi, Alex Twal and Samuela Fainu also on the sidelines. Fainu is out until Round 20 with a foot injury, while Twal isn\u2019t expected back until Round 18 with a knee issue.<\/p>\n

Doueihi was initially expected back this weekend in Round 16, but is reportedly behind schedule in his return from a shoulder injury. On Sunday, skipper Jarome Luai stepped up with a second-half hat-trick to secure a much-needed 36-28 win for the Tigers.<\/p>\n

Luai has come under heavy fire since announcing he\u2019s signed with PNG<\/a>, and the Tigers have fallen out of the top-eight since that time. (Benji Marshall) sat me down one day and said just wipe all of that – they (teammates) love you for who I am,\u201d Luai said on Sunday night. “They need me to bring my best. This is going to be the start of that, so I’m looking forward to next week.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wests Tigers\u2019 victory over the Titans on Sunday was marred by another serious injury for Benji Marshall\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,9421,356024,230925,761,762,158,212432,4576,28058,85,36522,4515],"class_list":["post-736874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-benji-marshall","tag-brien-seeney","tag-kai-pearce-paul","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nrl-season","tag-pearce-paul","tag-royce-hunt","tag-sports","tag-the-tigers","tag-wests-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736874","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=736874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}