{"id":746512,"date":"2026-06-19T10:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746512\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T10:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:53:10","slug":"nrl-news-2026-dolphins-cop-cruel-blow-as-young-half-isaiya-katoa-injured-team-lists-wests-tigers-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746512\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Dolphins cop cruel blow as young half Isaiya Katoa injured, team lists, Wests Tigers preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dolphins<\/a> will be without young playmaker Isaiya Katoa<\/a> when they face the Tigers<\/a> on Saturday as he continues to rehabilitate a lingering knee injury.<\/p>\n

Katoa suffered a minor injury to his knee last week against the Sydney Roosters<\/a>, but managed to play through the pain and help his team record a 48-10 win. <\/p>\n

\"Isaiya<\/p>\n

Isaiya Katoa seen training for the Dolphins.\u00a0 Bradley Kanaris<\/p>\n

Kristian Woolf<\/a> was hopeful the 22-year-old would be able to return to action against the Tigers on Saturday, having completed all training with the team. <\/p>\n

However, he has since pulled up lame and been forced to the bench. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really didn\u2019t think he was going to be missing this week,\u201d Woolf said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very confident that he will be available next week. He was running and feeling fine earlier in the week, he just was a little bit sore.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t want him out there worried about an injury or worry about re-hurting something and to have that in the back of his mind and not play at his best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The injury scare comes just weeks after Katoa was called in to train alongside the NSW Blues due to a hamstring injury suffered by Mitchell Moses.<\/p>\n

Brad Schneider will link up with Kodi Nikorima in Katoa\u2019s absence this week. <\/p>\n

However, Katoa\u2019s absence is only another piece to the puzzle that Woolf must solve this week, with the club resting four of their State of Origin stars. <\/p>\n

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Tom Flegler, Max Plath and Selwyn Cobbo will all watch on from the sidelines. Maroons debut Kilikefu Finefeuiaki and NSW reserve Jack Bostock have been named to back up from their representative duties. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the right decision for us to not play those guys. We\u2019ve been really happy with the team we\u2019ve played over the last couples of weeks,\u201d Woolf added.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s really happy for them. They\u2019ve come back with a real smile on their face and a spring in their step. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know they\u2019re really happy to be with the group as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woolf then made clear he will not take credit for the success of Cobbo, who joined the club this season after a mixed run at the Broncos last year, in the Origin arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see how much he\u2019s enjoying his footy by the way he\u2019s been playing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserves the credit, no one else, he\u2019s the one who\u2019s done the work to make himself come in fit, and he\u2019s done the work and had the consistency to keep himself that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dolphins will be without young playmaker Isaiya Katoa when they face the Tigers on Saturday as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-746512","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\/746512","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=746512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}