{"id":644825,"date":"2026-10-29T12:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T12:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644825\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T12:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T12:44:10","slug":"kalyn-ponga-could-return-for-kiwis-despite-world-cup-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644825\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalyn Ponga could return for Kiwis despite World Cup injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kiwis fullback Kayln Ponga could be set to make a remarkable recovery and return for the Kiwis in time for the finals of the Rugby League World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Ponga <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/10\/16\/kiwis-confirm-ponga-broke-arm-in-world-cup-opener-will-need-surgery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">broke his arm<\/a> on his Kiwis debut against the Kangaroos in the opening round of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When he did the injury we thought his tournament was over and he [said] &#8216;I&#8217;m coming back, I want to be involved&#8217;,&#8221; Kiwis coach Stacey Jones said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When a player has got the mindset and that calibre of player, you give him every chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/player\/newsclip\/kalyn-ponga-back-training-just-two-weeks-after-breaking-arm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kalyn Ponga back training just two weeks after breaking arm &#8211; Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ponga rejoined the team after surgery on the Gold Coast. He was seen at training yesterday. <\/p>\n<p>He won&#8217;t be available for New Zealand&#8217;s final pool match against Fiji this weekend, but is expected to be back for the semi-final should the Kiwis qualify.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s day-to-day for him and we didn&#8217;t rule him out straight away, he was confident he could still play a part and it&#8217;s good to see out on the training field.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this stage it&#8217;s a week-to-week proposition, we will have more of an idea after this weekend,&#8221; Jones said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds including dozens dead in a Spanish train crash, axe wielding robbers hit an Upper Hutt dairy, and how voters differ from political parties on issues.  (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwis fullback Kayln Ponga could be set to make a remarkable recovery and return for the Kiwis in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[807,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-644825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kiwis","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644825","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=644825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}