{"id":460909,"date":"2026-06-04T16:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460909\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:54:15","slug":"katoa-to-head-overseas-in-desperate-bid-to-play-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460909\/","title":{"rendered":"Katoa to head overseas in desperate bid to play again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having been ruled out of the 2026 season due to repeated head knocks and a brain bleed while playing for Tonga<\/a>, the NRL<\/a> career of Eliesa Katoa<\/a> is still clouded by uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Having seen experts throughout Australia<\/a> as part of his rehabilitation, Katoa will now head overseas over the next two months to see specialists in the United States of America and across Europe.<\/p>\n

Katoa had reportedly undergone testing in May to determine whether there is a future for him playing rugby league, and if so, when could he return at the earliest.<\/p>\n

However, no one, including head coach Craig Bellamy<\/a> has been any wiser on when Katoa could return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctors haven’t made that decision, and I don’t know when that decision will get made to be quite honest,” Bellamy said in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine after a certain amount of time he’ll have more tests and go from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a major injury, and we want him to live the rest of his life in a normal way.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo fingers crossed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we’d love to have him back playing footy, and playing with us. He was one hell of a player. Last year he won our player of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NRLSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 02: Christian Welch of the Storm celebrates with Eliesa Katoa of the Storm after victory during the round one NRL match between the Parramatta Eels and the Melbourne Storm at CommBank Stadium on March 02, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A key member of the Melbourne Storm<\/a> squad, Katoa’s impact, notably his average of 143 run metres per game, has been sorely missed all season.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old was regarded as one of the best back rowers in the game before the sickening head knocks, winning the Dally M for Second Row of the Year in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having been ruled out of the 2026 season due to repeated head knocks and a brain bleed while…\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":["post-460909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460909","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=460909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460909\/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=460909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}