“ACL confirmed. Tough to accept, but the season goes on. We got something special going. Big love for all the messages.”
It is the second time in his career Tuivasa-Sheck has picked up an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in his left knee, having also ruptured it in 2016.
The injury means Tuivasa-Sheck has played his last game for the club, having signed with English Super League club Wakefield Trinity for next season.
The average ACL recovery timeline can span from nine to 12 months.
It is the second ACL injury in as many weeks for the Warriors, after halfback Tanah Boyd went down in the opening minutes of the Warriors’ Magic Round victory over the Brisbane Broncos, before scans confirmed his season was done, with surgery needed.
The blow also comes days out from the Warriors’ top-of-the-table clash with the Penrith Panthers in Sydney on Sunday.
Adam Pompey looms as the likely replacement, after a starring role for the Warriors’ New South Wales Cup side last weekend – albeit at five-eighth.
Tuivasa-Sheck captained the Auckland club from 2017-21 and has won the Simon Mannering Medal as Warriors Player of the Year four times. He is the only player to win the award three consecutive years from 2017-19.
Tuivasa-Sheck is the only Warriors player to claim the Dally M Medal as NRL Player of the Year in 2018 and was also named Fullback of the Year in 2015 and 2018, and Winger of the Year in 2013.
In 2021, he switched to rugby union and played two tests for the All Blacks, before returning to league in 2024.
He has played internationally for the New Zealand Kiwis and Samoa.