{"id":896904,"date":"2026-09-18T19:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896904\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T19:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:54:19","slug":"nrl-news-2026-roosters-star-angus-crichton-set-to-return-from-injury-trent-robinson-gives-update-on-sam-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896904\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Roosters star Angus Crichton set to return from injury; Trent Robinson gives update on Sam Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Roosters<\/a> are hopeful of extending Angus Crichton<\/a>\u2019s NRL<\/a> career a little longer after he was deemed \u201cready to go\u201d to face the Sharks<\/a> on Saturday. <\/p>\n

Last week, concerns were raised he might not return at all before the end of the season when he was a late scratching ahead of the Roosters\u2019 loss to the Panthers.<\/p>\n

\"Angus\u00a0Crichton<\/p>\n

Angus\u00a0Crichton is returning for the first time in almost three months.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But that doubt was cast aside on Tuesday<\/a> when Trent Robinson<\/a> named the rugby-bound star<\/a> on the bench.<\/p>\n

Crichton had been sidelined since he suffered a foot injury in round 15, which required surgery and extensive rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

He was widely expected to return last week, but \u201che wasn\u2019t ready to go last week, simply put,\u201d Robinson said on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the truth of it. He still had some issues last week, but he hasn\u2019t had them this week, so he\u2019s ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson added was not overly concerned by the issues, nor does the thought of them worry him about putting Crichton into the heat of an elimination battle. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the standard of the game changes when it comes to Angus,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s the time out with the injury and managing the minutes he\u2019ll get on the field. That\u2019s the only thing, but he\u2019s played enough of these quality games to be ready to go back in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crichton was not the only Rooster vying to be fit in time for the finals series, with Sam Walker<\/a> hunting a miraculous return from a syndesmosis injury. <\/p>\n

The star playmaker underwent surgery for the injury shortly after the Roosters\u2019 round 26 clash against the Dolphins<\/a>, with many expecting his season to be over. <\/p>\n

But Robinson has made clear Walker has made a remarkable recovery from the injury and is already back training.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

Sam Walker went down injured in the Roosters\u2019 loss to the Dolphins.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

While he is not part of the 18-man squad for the elimination final against the Sharks, Robinson said Walker is \u201ca chance\u201d to play next week if the side qualifies. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother good progression this week, keep going,\u201d Robinson said of Walker. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a little bit less weight on that ankle compared to other guys in our game, so he\u2019s progressing well. Most of those guys end up doing straight-line running and all of that, whereas he\u2019s back into some free movement and into some training, so that\u2019s a real positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson kept his lips sealed when asked about the short turnarounds the Roosters will face if they are to make the preliminary finals, having had six days to prepare to face the Sharks and six days to prepare for that final if they qualify. <\/p>\n

But he did make clear that his playing group will do \u201cwhatever it takes to play in the finals\u201d and will openly accept \u201cthe (scheduling) cards we\u2019ve been dealt\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old went on to note that his team have taken on the learnings from their loss to Penrith last week and \u201cmoved on quickly\u201d to focus on the Sharks.<\/p>\n

And while the noise around the match has been around the return of the Roosters\u2019 injured stars, the Sharks also have one key figure carrying a nasty concern.<\/p>\n

Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler urged all remaining teams in the finals series to exploit the weakness of injured stars<\/a> like Braydon Trindall, who was inconvenienced by his shoulder when facing the Cowboys last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n

While Cronulla have worked to play down any major worry with Trindall\u2019s shoulder, Robinson admitted his players will be \u201ctargeting certain players\u201d to claim victory. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I think in these games you\u2019ve got to know where to get to and what to look at in the opposition, but we want to play our game really well,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to acknowledge if there are any opportunities, but we want to honour the way that we play at the same time. So it\u2019ll be a mix of both.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Roosters will host the Sharks at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Roosters are hopeful of extending Angus Crichton\u2019s NRL career a little longer after he was deemed \u201cready…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-896904","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\/896904","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=896904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}