{"id":489486,"date":"2026-06-22T06:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489486\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T06:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:58:16","slug":"all-blacks-sonny-bill-williams-hospitalised-after-neck-surgery-develops-an-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489486\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks: Sonny Bill Williams hospitalised after neck surgery develops an infection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cBeen up here for a couple of days now, the worrying bit about this whole thing is it\u2019s so close to my spinal cord, the infection. <\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Sonny Bill Williams updated fans on his health from his hospital bed. Photo \/ @sonnybillwilliams\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Sonny Bill Williams updated fans on his health from his hospital bed. Photo \/ @sonnybillwilliams<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cSo, inshallah, in the next couple of days, things will come good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">Williams explained how his wife had visited him crying, but he tried to look at the positives and moving forward from the complication.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s just made me so grateful for all the challenges because they\u2019re all blessings. <\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cYou know, my kids get to come up here and see me, I get to see my loved ones, get to be with my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">His wife left a comment on the post updating his status after the video was posted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWould like to add that he had to undergo a second surgery within the week to clean out the infection and abscess sitting on his spinal cord,\u201d she commented.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cAlhamdullilah all went well and recovering slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">Earlier this month, the two-time rugby World Cup winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/rugby\/all-blacks-sonny-bill-williams-warns-young-athletes-of-rugby-risks-as-he-faces-fourth-neck-surgery\/OKPVJEV3IZCBPF3QQKDQEBBHLY\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/rugby\/all-blacks-sonny-bill-williams-warns-young-athletes-of-rugby-risks-as-he-faces-fourth-neck-surgery\/OKPVJEV3IZCBPF3QQKDQEBBHLY\/\">posted a lengthy video to his followers before going in for his fourth neck surgery<\/a>, explaining the reality of being a retired professional athlete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis is a reminder for young athletes and parents pushing them to pursue a career as a professional athlete,\u201d Williams said at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m about to go in for, I think it\u2019s my fourth operation on my neck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cUnderstand this is the reality sometimes of this sport that we love and that we play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBeen up here for a couple of days now, the worrying bit about this whole thing is it\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,5263,8831,1558,16574,8136,105309,3602,42,2241,28750,12592,4486,6978,43,95584,11426,213074,6290,1961,40,38,41,39,13971],"class_list":["post-489486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-all","tag-an","tag-been","tag-bill","tag-blacks","tag-develops","tag-earlier","tag-headlines","tag-hospital","tag-hospitalised","tag-infection","tag-month","tag-neck","tag-news","tag-resulted","tag-rushed","tag-sonny","tag-surgery","tag-this","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489486","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=489486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}