{"id":693986,"date":"2026-07-16T01:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693986\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T01:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:36:10","slug":"tesi-niu-surgery-update-as-leigh-leopards-boss-teases-slim-chance-of-2026-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693986\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesi Niu surgery update as Leigh Leopards boss teases slim chance of 2026 return"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards centre Tesi Niu has had his knee surgery with head coach Adrian Lam confirming that the powerful back is out of hospital, whilst also teasing the slim chance of a return in 2026.<\/p>\n

Niu went down at Magic Weekend with the Leigh man the victim of a hip-drop tackle by Warrington\u2019s Sam Powell, something that the Wire man was handed a three-match ban for.<\/p>\n

That was little solace for the Leopards who believed that they would be without their strike centre for the rest of the season<\/a> and whilst that\u2019s still likely to be the case, Leigh boss Adrian Lam has offered a sliver of hope that Niu could return.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Serious About Rugby League at his weekly presser, Lam confirmed that the 24-year-old had gone in for his surgery, along with fellow back Bailey Hodgson who had suffered from an elbow infection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth he and Bailey Hodgson went in for surgery yesterday, so both out now and both on the mend, so Tesi is the rest of the season,\u201d Lam initially revealed but he quickly added that there could be hopes of a fast-track return.<\/p>\n

Lam said: \u201cIf we can fast track that in any way possible, it\u2019ll be right at the very end of the year and maybe back for the final, so fingers crossed that we can get that on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be a challenge there for our medical team and for Tesi but Tesi\u2019s very professional with his prep so you know there\u2019s no reason why we can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most Read on Serious About Rugby League<\/p>\n

Recovery timeline for Leigh Leopards star<\/p>\n

Should Leigh make it to Old Trafford then having a player of Tesi Niu\u2019s impact return for a one-off game such as the Grand Final would be massive for the Leopards, and it would also be a substantial recovery given the nature of the injury.<\/p>\n

Lam explained: \u201cIt was the MCL rupture and also there was a cartilage that was that was cracked and also lifted, so a dangerous one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having gone in for surgery yesterday, July 14th, Niu has 81 days or just under 12 weeks to make a return for the Grand Final. Of course, he\u2019d require some time back on field before then to find some semblance of match fitness, and even then it may be too tight a window.<\/p>\n

However, the fact that there is some hope is still a major positive for the Leopards.<\/p>\n

Sorry St Helens, new contenders emerge and Super League Man of Steel debate \u2013\u00a0Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards centre Tesi Niu has had his knee surgery with head coach Adrian Lam confirming that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-693986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}