{"id":870547,"date":"2026-08-27T18:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870547\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T18:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:46:15","slug":"nrl-2026-bulldogs-players-cleared-to-play-after-covid-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870547\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Bulldogs players cleared to play after Covid scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bulldogs are set to be 1-13 on Friday night with the eight players struck down by Covid given the green light to take on the Panthers in what shapes as a virtual elimination final for Cameron Ciraldo\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

The Canterbury coach revealed after last week\u2019s win over the Dragons that a handful of players had battled the virus, with eight players and two staff members isolated from the rest of the squad on Monday.<\/p>\n

Former outside back Steve Turner had to fill in at fullback for the session, but Ciraldo did not take part, with everyone involved in Thursday\u2019s captain\u2019s run at Belmore. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was slow when I played, so I can\u2019t move any faster now,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s good, everyone\u2019s back on deck. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more precautionary at the start of the week. Obviously, it was just a light session we had earlier in the week, so we decided to keep the guys away from each other until after the day off. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone bounced in yesterday, we had a good preparation, and we\u2019re excited about the opportunity tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably a little bit blown out of proportion. We had a bit of influenza A go through the camp a couple of weeks ago and that rocked some guys, so we were more testing for that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys have been good, they sort of had a runny nose for a while, and we kept them away from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The health of his team is one of two big boosts for Ciraldo leading into the Panthers clash, with edge forward Jacob Preston agreeing to a four-year extension after there were fears he could hit the open market on November 1.<\/p>\n

The club was always confident it would find a number that worked for both parties, with Bulldogs supremo Phil Gould convincing one of the best back-rowers to stay when new franchises the Bears and Chiefs were circling. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been awesome watching Jacob\u2019s journey over the last four years. He\u2019s grown so much as a player and a person, and we\u2019re really excited to have him around for a lot longer,\u201d Ciraldo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know the details (of the deal), that\u2019s between Gus (Gould) and his management. But as I said, I was really confident Jacob wanted to stay. We wanted to keep him and I\u2019m happy it\u2019s done now.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacob was very adamant that he loves the club and wanted to stay here. It\u2019s a good rap for our club that he\u2019s enjoying his footy here and enjoying the environment. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe thinks he can play his best footy here. We\u2019re really pleased, but as I said, we\u2019ve got a very short-term focus tomorrow, and that\u2019s putting our best performance out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That focus is solely on the Panthers game, which the Bulldogs must win if they want to keep their finals hopes alive.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs start the round two points behind the eighth-placed Cowboys, with Canterbury handing Penrith their first loss of the year back in round 6. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about what\u2019s on the line in a big picture sense,\u201d Ciraldo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a very short-term focus, we want to stay present throughout that 80 minutes, and if we can do that and get our game on, then we give ourselves an opportunity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no point us worrying about everything else outside that 80 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as \u2018Blown out of proportion\u2019: Bulldogs Covid nightmare over as emerging superstar signs huge extension with club<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bulldogs are set to be 1-13 on Friday night with the eight players struck down by Covid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[432304,434375,406040,377258,390985,439087,439115,376963,377373,439108,439103,439112,439109,433488,439093,380489,376730,376490,381856,379284,439089,439096,439100,386130,382345,64,63,66965,414887,4026,417729,439097,439094,7618,25907,417737,10970,147,439090,323947,379391,1906,439082,439098,383201,199641,39598,147808,439105,115293,51086,439111,439107,411618,377460,384953,439092,26416,39615,4592,439101,13307,439113,439099,761,762,439083,35062,378620,438976,158,439110,395167,380373,5357,6622,16284,7820,9360,439102,439095,85,439091,10020,439084,417911,395162,439104,23275,380414,293041,439088,382205,379738,378882,391600,64274,439085,439086,51849,406922,397365,390509,377391,87494,380495,380430,5991,439114,439080,378229,377482,384942,394476,376950,385061,98734,378969,387607,439081,9357,7570,439106,412303,410870,29258,93285],"class_list":["post-870547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-s-captain","tag-s-journey","tag-s-run","tag-s-side","tag-s-win","tag-1-13","tag-a-big-picture-sense","tag-a-bit","tag-a-couple","tag-a-covid-crisis","tag-a-four-year-extension","tag-a-good-preparation","tag-a-good-rap","tag-a-handful","tag-a-light-session","tag-a-little-bit","tag-a-lot","tag-a-number","tag-a-person","tag-a-player","tag-a-runny-nose","tag-a-very-short-term-focus","tag-a-virtual-elimination-final","tag-a-while","tag-an-opportunity","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belmore","tag-both-parties","tag-bulldogs","tag-bulldogs-coach-cameron-ciraldo","tag-bulldogs-covid","tag-bulldogs-supremo-phil-gould","tag-cameron-ciraldo","tag-canterbury","tag-ciraldo","tag-club","tag-covid","tag-covid-nightmare","tag-deck","tag-each-other","tag-edge","tag-eight-players","tag-emerging-superstar-signs","tag-everything-else","tag-fears","tag-friday","tag-fullback","tag-gould","tag-gus","tag-havoc","tag-his-best-footy","tag-his-footy","tag-his-management","tag-his-side","tag-his-team","tag-huge-extension","tag-influenza-a","tag-jacob","tag-jacob-preston","tag-just-who","tag-last-week","tag-monday-former","tag-more-testing","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-franchises","tag-night","tag-no-point","tag-november-1-the","tag-nrl","tag-our-best-performance","tag-our-club","tag-our-game","tag-panthers","tag-part","tag-penrith","tag-players","tag-proportion","tag-round-6","tag-some-guys","tag-sports","tag-steve-turner","tag-teams","tag-that-80-minutes","tag-that-focus","tag-the-bears-and-chiefs","tag-the-best-back-rowers","tag-the-boys","tag-the-bulldogs","tag-the-camp","tag-the-canterbury-coach","tag-the-club","tag-the-day","tag-the-deal","tag-the-details","tag-the-dragons","tag-the-eight-players","tag-the-eighth-placed-cowboys","tag-the-environment","tag-the-green-light","tag-the-guys","tag-the-health","tag-the-last-four-years","tag-the-line","tag-the-open-market","tag-the-opportunity","tag-the-panthers","tag-the-panthers-clash","tag-the-panthers-game","tag-the-rest","tag-the-round","tag-the-session","tag-the-squad","tag-the-start","tag-the-virus","tag-the-week","tag-the-year","tag-their-finals-hopes","tag-their-first-loss","tag-thursday","tag-tomorrow","tag-two-big-boosts","tag-two-points","tag-two-staff-members","tag-weeks","tag-yesterday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870547","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=870547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}