{"id":214763,"date":"2026-01-03T11:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/214763\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T11:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:49:11","slug":"eliesa-katoa-posts-promising-update-on-social-media-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/214763\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliesa Katoa posts promising update on social media – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm<\/a> star Eliesa Katoa’s recovery is continuing, with the forward showcasing himself going for a run and training at the gym in a recent social media post.<\/p>\n

Katoa has already been ruled out for the entirety of the 2026 NRL<\/a> season by the Storm after he suffered a traumatic head injury playing for Tonga<\/a> during the end-of-year Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n

The forward suffered three head knocks on the same day and wound up in hospital, needing surgery for a bleed on the brain.<\/p>\n

The star has since returned to Victoria where he is under Melbourne Storm<\/a> medical supervision, but the club confirmed he would need the entirety of this year for recovery, and was hesitant to confirm he would be back in 2027.<\/p>\n

In a positive sign though, the forward posted an Instagram story late on New Year’s Day which showcased him running and going to the gym.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don’t get to choose everything that happens to you, but you always get to choose who you become in response,\u201d Katoa wrote in the now-expired Instagram story’s caption.<\/p>\n

Given he was ruled out for the entirety of the season, his return to physical activity this early is a step in the right direction for the forward.<\/p>\n

Katoa, who made the 2025 Dally M team of the year in the second row, is widely regarded as the best edge forward in the game, and will leave a gaping hole in Melbourne’s side heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old has played 118 NRL<\/a> games, of which 72 have come for the Storm since he joined the club in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne Storm star Eliesa Katoa’s recovery is continuing, with the forward showcasing himself going for a run and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-214763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}