{"id":410170,"date":"2026-05-03T19:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/410170\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T19:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:12:12","slug":"former-silver-ferns-captain-casey-kopuas-return-marred-by-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/410170\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Silver Ferns captain Casey Kopua’s return marred by injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Casey<\/p>\n

\nCasey Kopua was a force to be reckoned with during the first half at Pulman Arena in South Auckland playing at goal defence.
\nPhoto: www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

The ANZ Premiership comeback of former Silver Ferns legend Casey Kopua has been cut short by injury.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old answered a call from Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic<\/a> to return as an interim replacement for the struggling side.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the defender played strongly, as the Magic trailed Northern Stars by just three at halftime in Auckland, but the return was short-lived, as Kopua hobbled off the court early in the third quarter with a lower leg injury.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the court, the Stars benefitted from the introduction of another veteran defender, assistant coach Leana de Bruin.<\/p>\n

She brushed aside any pre-game nerves to make an impact against Magic shooter Grace Walsh (nee Namana). Walsh was another replacement recruited by the Magic for sidelined shooter Saviour Tui.<\/p>\n

The Magic’s strong first-half challenge fell away when Kopua left the court, with the Stars posting a dominant 17-10 third quarter effort.<\/p>\n

The Stars extended their lead to win by a massive 56-39 scoreline.<\/p>\n

An injury blow has also struck Southern Steel, after goal shooter Aliyah Dunn fell awkwardly in Saturday night’s 54-47 win over Central Pulse in Invercargill.<\/p>\n

Steel coach Wendy Frew said Dunn had likely sustained a calf tear.<\/p>\n

In a tight ANZ Premiership competition, Mainland Tactix, the Stars and he Steel all have three wins and one loss, after the opening four rounds.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds<\/a>, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make, spend and invest money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casey Kopua was a force to be reckoned with during the first half at Pulman Arena in South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-410170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410170","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=410170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}