CLUB STATEMENT: Lalakai Foketi
Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 12:57 PM
Waratahs Media
The NSW Waratahs can confirm that centre Lalakai Foketi sustained an injury to his neck at training in Daceyville today.
Foketi was taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick by ambulance following the incident which occurred during the field session this morning.
The club is awaiting the results from the scans and Foketi’s family are with him in hospital. Club representatives have been on hand to provide support throughout the day.
The Waratahs would like to thank the amazing staff at the Prince of Wales Hospital and will provide further updates on Foketi as they come to hand.
Waratahs star Foketi in hospital with neck injury
Story by Darren Walton, AAP • 7h
Wallabies centre Lalakai Foketi has undergone scans after being taken to hospital in an ambulance with a neck injury sustained at NSW Waratahs training.
Foketi was treated for more than half an hour by medics after an apparently innocuous incident during a session on Thursday at the Waratahs' Daceyville base in Sydney.
Coach Darren Coleman initially reported the 29-year-old had movement in his fingers before the club released a statement.
"Foketi was taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick by ambulance following the incident which occurred during the field session this morning," the club said.
"The club is awaiting the results from the scans and Foketi's family are with him in hospital. Club representatives have been on hand to provide support throughout the day.
"The Waratahs would like to thank the amazing staff at the Prince of Wales Hospital and will provide further updates on Foketi as they come to hand."
The injury comes just two days before the Tahs' season-opening Super Rugby clash against the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium.
Foketi, a member of Australia's World Cup squad last year and the scorer of the Wallabies' try of the season in 2022, had been named to start at inside centre in a star-studded midfield with Izaia Perese.
Coleman will almost certainly need to find a replacement and may consider promoting teenage sensation Max Jorgensen from the bench into the starting XV.
Jorgensen only made his comeback from a fractured fibula in a trial last Saturday against a combined Manly and Warringah outfit.
The 19-year-old survived 40 minutes unscathed after being forced home early from the World Cup in France without featuring in any of Australia's games.
Should Coleman go that way, Jorgensen would likely start at fullback and Joey Walton be shifted to the centres.
Otherwise Mosese Tupulotu, the brother of Scotland midfielder Sione, may come into the centres to team with Perese, allowing Jorgensen to be eased back into the fold as the Waratahs had hoped.
The Reds beat the Waratahs handsomely in Roma two weeks ago, before Coleman's side also lost comprehensively to the Melbourne Rebels in a second trial.
But prop Angus Bell insists there's no need for panic.
"We came into that week not wanting to show very much. You don't want to show your hand before you play them and certain things that we think will work against the Reds in a trial," Bell said on Thursday.
"It's not down to that. We weren't good enough in some aspects and gave them too much time.
"(But) we've gone the past two years winning all our trials and we've come into the season and got opposite results. Trial form doesn't mean much, it's about us getting back into our footy.
"We weren't happy with the results, but we're excited that we get to prove everyone else wrong this weekend when we beat the Reds at Suncorp."
Waratahs centre set to miss season-opener against Reds with neck injury
Story by Tom Decent, SMH • 4h
Wallabies and Waratahs centre Lalakai Foketi has been taken to hospital after suffering a neck injury at training on Thursday that is all but set to rule him out of his side’s Super Rugby Pacific season opener against the Queensland Reds this weekend.
A day after being named at No.12 for the Waratahs ahead of their clash at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night, Foketi came off the training field after hurting his neck before being taken away in an ambulance from the team’s base in Daceyville.
Foketi was taken to hospital for precautionary scans, with results expected to be known by Friday.
The Waratahs say Foketi was responsive and able to move this fingers after the incident, which took place at a ruck. Onlookers say it was an innocuous knock.
Foketi’s wife and father met him at hospital after an injury that is likely to see the talented midfielder miss multiple matches.
“Foketi was taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick by ambulance following the incident which occurred during the field session this morning,” a Waratahs statement read.
“The club is awaiting the results from the scans and Foketi’s family are with him in hospital. Club representatives have been on hand to provide support throughout the day. The Waratahs would like to thank the amazing staff at the Prince of Wales Hospital and will provide further updates on Foketi as they come to hand.”
The 29-year-old was a member of the Wallabies’ World Cup squad in France.
New fullback Joey Walton could shift to inside centre, where he has played previously, with Max Jorgensen a chance to come into the starting side at No.15.
The Waratahs have been eager to monitor Jorgensen’s return from a fractured fibula that he picked up at the World Cup but may be forced to give the 19-year-old extra minutes in Foketi’s absence. Mosese Tupulotu is another option to partner Izaia Perese (No.13) in the centres.
NSW players will have to put news of Foketi’s injury to the back of their minds as they try and start fast in enemy territory.
Queensland won four straight matches against NSW in 2021 and 2022 before the Waratahs secured a 32-24 victory in Townsville last year. A favourable result in Brisbane would mark the first time the Waratahs have chalked up back-to-back wins over the Reds since May 2019.
