{"id":882380,"date":"2026-09-06T18:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882380\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T18:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:44:18","slug":"puka-nacua-has-rare-psoas-injury-latest-rumors-on-rams-stars-status-vs-49ers-in-nfl-tnf-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882380\/","title":{"rendered":"Puka Nacua Has Rare ‘Psoas’ Injury, Latest Rumors on Rams Star’s Status vs. 49ers in NFL TNF Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams are expecting wide receiver Puka Nacua to suit up for their opener against the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.<\/p>\n

Nacua picked up<\/a> a psoas injury during an August practice. The injury affects<\/a> the lower half of the body, with Fowler saying, “You don’t hear that very often.”<\/p>\n

“They held him out for a few weeks, taking it easy with him, but he’s been back in stride this week, no setbacks,” the NFL insider reported on the star pass-catcher.<\/p>\n

Coach Sean McVay also spoke positively about Nacua earlier this week:<\/p>\n

The two-time Pro Bowler led the NFL in receptions (129) and finished with 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2025. He made his first All-Pro team.<\/p>\n

The 2026 season could be a pivotal one for Nacua as he’s headed for free agency in the spring. He could plausibly overtake the Seattle Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba ($42.2 million) as the league’s highest-paid receiver<\/a> when he signs his next contract.<\/p>\n

At the very least, another 1,000-yard campaign would likely put Nacua into the $40 million region.<\/p>\n

For their part, the Rams are counting on the 25-year-old to help anchor the passing game. They were already all-in on chasing another Super Bowl title, and they doubled down further by acquiring Myles Garrett and coaxing Aaron Donald out of retirement. <\/p>\n

Los Angeles’ Week 1 matchup could have playoff implications when considering the Rams and Niners finished with the same record a season ago. Having Nacua on the field will be a big boost to the offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams are expecting wide receiver Puka Nacua to suit up for their opener against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-882380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882380","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=882380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}