{"id":37513,"date":"2026-06-24T08:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/37513\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T08:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:34:06","slug":"wayne-bennett-says-south-sydney-rabbitohs-nrl-injury-issues-just-bad-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/37513\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett says South Sydney Rabbitohs’ NRL injury issues just bad luck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wayne Bennett has defended South Sydney’s $25 million training facilities as Latrell Mitchell’s calf tear once again fuels speculation that Heffron Park’s turf could be responsible for the Rabbitohs’ alarmingly high casualty toll.<\/p>\n

Mitchell has joined teammates Campbell Graham and Talanoa Penitani on the sidelines with soft-tissue injuries after David Fifita missed more than a month with a hamstring problem, while Adam Elliott and Brandon Smith have also battled calf issues this season.<\/p>\n

After moving bases from Redfern to Matraville in 2023, Souths conducted a review of the surface after similar injury issues last season<\/a> \u2014 as Mitchell, Cody Walker and Campbell Graham played 11 games each and star lock Cameron Murray just one \u2014 but found nothing sinister with the facilities.<\/p>\n

Mitchell ruled out of Origin III<\/a><\/p>\n

After a demoralising defeat to the Maroons, the Blues learn Latrell Mitchell will be unavailable for selection in the series-deciding State of Origin III.<\/p>\n

Bennett bristled today when asked if their training pitch might be contributing to the squad’s woes.<\/p>\n

“No, no \u2026 you say a lot of soft-tissue injuries. I’ve got guys with broken thumbs, I’ve got guys with broken forearms, so they’re not soft-tissue injuries,” the coach said ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with Parramatta at Western Sydney Stadium.<\/p>\n

“No, it’s nothing to do with [that]. You can look for all the myths that you want, but the bottom line is it’s just a part of what we do.<\/p>\n

“We train, a lot of time running, a lot of time playing, and we have these moments where we get the injuries and we’re not the only club with them.”<\/p>\n

Despite the glut of talent on the sidelines, the Rabbitohs thrashed defending premiers Brisbane last start before enjoying a bye to remain in seventh spot.<\/p>\n

South Sydney’s injury listAdam Elliott* (ankle)Campbell Graham (calf)Sean Keppie (thumb)Latrell Mitchell (calf)Talanoa Penitani (hamstring)Isaiah Tass* (knee)Jack Wighton (arm)<\/p>\n

* Out for the season<\/p>\n

Bennett challenged his battered but upbeat troops to hit the go button in the run to the finals.<\/p>\n

“We just need a bit more luck with the injuries, if we can get that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But we’re in there so it’s the time of the year where we’ve really got to start to make a statement halfway through the season and Origin’s just about over.<\/p>\n

“So I think we can be in there at the end of the season, but we just need a bit of luck and we want to play the football that we played last week on a more consistent basis.”<\/p>\n

Bennett also rejected the notion Mitchell was devastated, insisting the superstar centre was getting on with business, while revealing fellow strike player Jack Wighton would return from a broken arm next week.<\/p>\n

The 14th-placed Eels also have a stack of stars out injured, including Jake Tago, Jonah Pezet, Junior Paulo and J’Maine Hopgood as they fight desperately to stay in the finals hunt.<\/p>\n

“They’re battling their way there. They’re playing pretty good,” Bennett said before offering a signature one-liner when asked how the Rabbitohs would try to stop Parramatta game-breaker Mitch Moses in his milestone 250th NRL game.<\/p>\n

“Tackle him. That always works.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett has defended South Sydney’s $25 million training facilities as Latrell Mitchell’s calf tear once again fuels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26367,660,1406,4963,4961,247,362],"class_list":["post-37513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-injuries","tag-latrell-mitchell","tag-nrl","tag-rabbitohs","tag-south-sydney","tag-sydney","tag-wayne-bennett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}