Melbourne Storm star Eli Katoa isn’t giving up on returning to the field as he continues his recovery from brain surgery.
Katoa was ruled out for the 2026 season following his high-profile brain bleed suffered while playing for Tonga in the Pacific Championships late last year.
He suffered three head knocks in 90 minutes and required oxygen on the sidelines, before undergoing emergency surgery. Katoa spent more than two weeks in a New Zealand hospital before being allowed to return to Melbourne.
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The devastating injuries sent shockwaves through the NRL world with three Tongan medical staff handed two-year bands as a result.
Earlier this year, Storm coach Craig Bellamy cast doubt about Katoa ever returning to the field, but eight months on from the incident, and Katoa has making great strides in his recovery as he continues to look forward, rather than back.
“I don’t want to go back and take my time talking about what happened,” he said on The Agenda Setters: Rugby League.
“I think everyone knows, but for the people that don’t know what happened to me, I was lucky enough to play for Tonga and we were playing the Kiwis. I got three head knocks so I had bleed on my brain. I went to the hospital, had a few surgeries on it and I’m still recovering from that.”
When asked if he held animosity towards the officials for the way it was handled, Katoa said he doesn’t even think about it.
“Yeah, the same thing as what I said before. I’m the sort of the person that what happened in the past, I sort of just leave that and move away and move forward and do what I need to do,” he continued.
“Obviously my goal is just to come back and play and there’s no point for me to look back and try to see what should have happened and what we could have done better.
“It’s already happened and lucky enough I’m still alive. My next goal is focussing on what I can do to come back and play the game again.”
Katoa has been training with the club for the past three months, and doing everything he can to support the team, including being the blue shirt trainer.
“I’m going really well at the moment. There’s a lot of support around me, obviously with Melbourne and the medical staff and obviously the boys and the coaching staff as well, which has been so good for me and I’m really grateful about that,” he said.
“I’ve been going well with my recovery. There’s still a long way to go, but like I said, my goal is to do whatever I can do to come back and play the game again.
“I’ve been training with them, come and do all the running and stuff outside and do gym with them every day. The only difference is that I can’t help them on the field at the moment, but we’ll get there one day.”
The next step to a potential return the field is getting clearance from medical staff.
“It’s going to be tough. There’s a lot of things going into it. If you talk about yes or no answers here, I’m thinking about my family as well — the people that I do what I do for them,” he said.
“But for what I’m doing now, it’s just controlling of what I can do, whether it’s getting flogged at training all the time and doing the blue shirt and helping out the boys.
“I know if I just do my bit, the thing that I can control, and hopefully that can go a long way. But in terms of that, we don’t know the answers yet, but let’s just hope for the best.”
Katoa paid tribute to the club and coach Craig Bellamy for the support they have given him since arriving at the Storm from the Warriors ahead of the 2023 season.
“Obviously my career started when I was at the Warriors there, but for me, I’d say it started when I first walked into the Storm stadium there,” he said.
“What he (Craig Bellamy) did for me at the start, and the staff and the players as well. I felt like I was at home as soon as I walked in there.
“As you know, at the Melbourne Storm has a lot of different players from different states and different backgrounds, but we call each other as a family here because we hang around with each other on our days off and we do everything together because we don’t have our family here.
“But the support that he has done for me, I can’t talk enough. Like I said, not only just him, but from the club and everyone around here in Melbourne here, it’s been huge and I’m so grateful for that.”
Looking ahead, Katoa is just happy to be a part of the squad and will do whatever is asked of him.
“I think there’s a few appointments to go through, but at the moment, I’m just taking it week by week and just listening to all the coaches, what they need me to do,” he said.
“I’m just doing whatever the team needs me to do at the moment.”
