All Blacks: Wallace Sititi opens up on ‘heartbreaking’ injury and ‘relief’ of recent comeback
Wallace Sititi in action for the Chiefs and All Blacks.
Chiefs and All Blacks back-row star Wallace Sititi has revealed that the injury which has kept him on the sidelines for most of this year’s Super Rugby Pacific competition bothered him during 2024 already.
The 22-year-old only returned to action via the replacements bench for the Chiefs during the latter stages of an emphatic 56-22 triumph over the Western Force in Hamilton last week.
Sititi, who was last year’s All Blacks Player of the Year and World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of 2024, showed his class with some deft touches and fine line breaks during a 10-minute stint against the Force and has once again been named amongst the Chiefs replacements for this weekend’s clash against the Hurricanes in Wellington.
However, he revealed that despite catching the eye with several outstanding performances for the Chiefs which led to him being selected for the All Blacks, he had a niggling knee injury which bothered him for a large part of 2024.
‘It sort of just recurred like that’
“I was carrying it throughout the back-end of the Chiefs season last year, one of those ones that’ll come up in the game, feel sore the next day, and then be right by the next game, it sort of just recurred like that,” he told Stuff.
“But in that last game against Italy in Turin, I hyper-extended my knee and damaged my meniscus.”
That meant that the Chiefs were without his services for most of their 2025 campaign, but he hit the ground running with that brief cameo against the Force and admitted that he enjoyed his return to action.
“I was just grateful to be able to go out there on Friday night and enjoy myself,” Sititi said of his comeback, which was made after having surgery on his right leg in January.
“We knew from the start that when I come back, we’re not going to strap it or anything, we’re just going to make sure we’re real confident in it.
“Once I got out there, it was a bit more of a relief, being able to tick that box, and now it’s about building my foundation heading into the business end of the season.”
After announcing himself with several outstanding performances at Super Rugby Pacific level and the Test arena in 2024, Sititi admitted that it was disappointing not to be involved at the start of the Hamlton-based outfit’s 2025 campaign.
“I was definitely heartbroken, gutted, especially with the exciting team that we’ve got here, I would’ve loved to have started the season off fresh,” he said.
And after impressing in his comeback recently, Sititi is keen to make up for lost time during the rest of the season and believes there was some divine intervention in his speedy recovery.
‘God blessed me with a bit of his healing powers’
“I think the grace of God blessed me with a bit of his healing powers,” said Sititi, who also credited Chiefs return-to-play physio Peter Hughes for helping him to be at peak level when he made his comeback.
“A lot of 6.30, 7am starts, six, seven days a week, right at the start, and just a lot of hard work, especially by Pete and his team here.
“That first few weeks, couldn’t do much on feet, so I took the time to myself and sort of went into hibernation, and worked on not only my knee but everything else in my body that needed work.
“I definitely wasn’t doing as much training so I knew I had to look after my body in ways I sort of hadn’t before, cut out a bit of fizzy − usually a lot of Coke Zero’s, a lot of Sprite as well − watch my eating, and watch my weight.
“We were lucky to have this time early in my career to work on other things, and I think we maximised that pretty well.”
READ MORE: All Blacks star handed ban after horror tackle in Super Rugby defeat
