{"id":902807,"date":"2026-09-23T18:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902807\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:34:15","slug":"nrl-2026-sam-walker-convinced-trent-robinson-that-he-would-return-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902807\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Sam Walker convinced Trent Robinson that he would return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roosters coach Trent Robinson has declared returning halfback Sam Walker is \u201cfit and ready to go\u201d and will play 80 minutes in Friday\u2019s preliminary final after his incredible comeback from injury. <\/p>\n

Walker suffered a syndesmosis injury in round 26 against the Dolphins on August 29 but has been named to play just four weeks later against the same opposition in the grand final qualifier. <\/p>\n

The Queensland star will wear the No.7 on his back, with Hugo Savala dropping back to the bench after filling in alongside Daly Cherry-Evans.<\/p>\n

Walker got through Monday\u2019s training session and will be on the plane with the team on Thursday when they fly up to Brisbane. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fit and ready to go,\u201d Robinson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHugo\u2019s been outstanding and he\u2019s ready to go, and the only reason that I would put Sam in is if I knew he was 100 per cent and he\u2019s right. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s moved in lots of directions so far, so another good session today. But it hasn\u2019t actually been that long since he played. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are obviously some guys that get out with injury for a long period of time, whereas he didn\u2019t play that long ago and he got moving quite quickly after that op.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker will kick goals on Friday, but Savala is ready to step up if required. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a remarkable return given the doom and gloom when Walker went down with the injury, but he made it clear to Robinson at the time that his target was always this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the operation credit goes to both doctors and also physios to the speed of the recovery. And then also the mindset of Sammy, he was pretty clear about what his target was,\u201d the three-time premiership-winning coach said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI said to him two weeks ago \u2018do you think you\u2019ll be right for the last game of the year?\u2019 and he said \u2018I\u2019ll be right for the one before that\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even that surprised me a couple of weeks ago. Do you have the physical capacity and treatment? And he\u2019s done that. And then do you have the mindset to get back ready to play? And he\u2019s got that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what role Savala plays given he can fill in at centre, in the halves or at lock forward, but Robinson is confident he will thrive wherever he comes on. <\/p>\n

\u201cHugo is so important to our team and the way that he approaches the game and plays the game. He\u2019ll have his part to play,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of them said \u2018what do you want me to do and what role do you want me to play?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a selfless act from both of them, and then I made the decision about what I wanted to start the game there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Robinson has addressed concerns over star duo James Tedesco and Cherry-Evans after the pair sat out Monday\u2019s session with the flu. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pretty good. Daly should get through a fair bit, James will get through a bit today as well. Still on the mend, but that\u2019s the life of an athlete,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a little bit crook, but that\u2019s cool. There\u2019s always either injuries or illness or babies or moving or whatever you want to throw up. A bit of our mantra there is we\u2019ll care about you Monday to Friday, but game day we don\u2019t care, get ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as \u2018I\u2019ll be right for the one before that\u2019: The Sam Walker vow that convinced the Roosters he would make shock return<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roosters coach Trent Robinson has declared returning halfback Sam Walker is \u201cfit and ready to go\u201d and will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[461488,470777,470790,45986,447752,376963,377373,395154,470779,396176,377442,452918,470780,470772,387310,402316,382329,470775,64,66948,63,470794,651,32092,98710,1650,56957,466846,470791,380607,16308,39598,20924,31645,100092,378754,439978,470783,426838,470782,75716,11402,12979,470788,3899,47573,417702,466838,35547,401893,13052,761,762,158,470789,470793,407491,9747,9120,380296,73924,64935,4478,186999,440964,296295,439095,85,470785,470796,384381,378533,54179,470792,9571,74713,456469,395523,417727,470774,389085,468536,388549,470776,77470,470778,470787,376757,470797,412809,470795,429098,174850,470784,464398,450915,315971,470781,376539,214758,381713,378969,199184,9357,6618,24080,4737,381069,9829,29258,470773,470786],"class_list":["post-902807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-s-preliminary-final","tag-s-session","tag-s-training-session","tag-45986","tag-80-minutes","tag-a-bit","tag-a-couple","tag-a-fair-bit","tag-a-little-bit-crook","tag-a-long-period","tag-a-miracle","tag-a-remarkable-return","tag-a-roosters-miracle","tag-a-selfless-act","tag-a-serious-injury","tag-a-syndesmosis-injury","tag-an-athlete","tag-another-good-session","tag-au","tag-august-29","tag-australia","tag-both-doctors","tag-brisbane","tag-cent","tag-centre","tag-coaches","tag-concerns","tag-daly","tag-daly-cherry-evans-walker","tag-directions","tag-finals","tag-friday","tag-game-day","tag-goals","tag-halfback","tag-his-back","tag-his-coach","tag-his-incredible-comeback","tag-his-part","tag-his-target","tag-hugo","tag-hugo-savala","tag-injuries","tag-injuries-or-illness-or-babies","tag-injury","tag-james","tag-just-four-weeks","tag-less-than-a-month","tag-lock","tag-lots","tag-monday","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-one-sentence","tag-our-mantra","tag-our-team","tag-robinson","tag-roosters","tag-roosters-coach-trent-robinson","tag-round-26","tag-sam","tag-sam-walker","tag-sammy","tag-savala","tag-shock-return","tag-some-guys","tag-sports","tag-star-duo-james-tedesco-and-cherry-evans","tag-that-op","tag-the-bench","tag-the-decision","tag-the-dolphins","tag-the-doom-and-gloom","tag-the-flu","tag-the-game","tag-the-grand-final-qualifier","tag-the-halves","tag-the-injury","tag-the-last-game","tag-the-life","tag-the-mend","tag-the-mindset","tag-the-no-7","tag-the-one","tag-the-only-reason","tag-the-operation-credit","tag-the-pair","tag-the-physical-capacity-and-treatment","tag-the-plane","tag-the-queensland-star","tag-the-recovery","tag-the-roosters","tag-the-sam-walker-vow","tag-the-same-opposition","tag-the-speed","tag-the-team","tag-the-three-time-premiership-winning-coach","tag-the-time","tag-the-way","tag-the-words","tag-the-year","tag-this-week","tag-thursday","tag-time","tag-today","tag-trent-robinson","tag-two-weeks","tag-walker","tag-weeks","tag-what-role","tag-what-role-savala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902807","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=902807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}