Rohan Smith provides return timeline after star player’s huge health scare

Leeds Rhinos Head Coach Rohan Smith has confirmed star forward Zane Tetevano has returned to training following his stroke. 

Speaking to the media today, Smith said: “Zane’s doing some field training. He’s modified but he’s certainly on the path back. He’s got some medical things to tick off, so it’s a different sort of process than an ankle or a shoulder type process. We’ll be very much influenced by the doctors there rather than physio and S&C staff, which the other guys that you mentioned are pretty much in the hands of our S&C coaches now and in conjunction with our physios.”

The former Cook Islands and New Zealand international suffered a stroke during a training session, and has since had surgery to repair the hole in his heart.

Back in June, Tetevano described the events of his stroke to BBC Leeds, saying: “I missed like three plays and the staff were like ‘are you alright?’ and I said “no, no. I can’t feel my face” and then [Leeds’ performance director] Richard Hunwicks ran over and he said “what’s going on?” and I told him how I felt and then I started kicking my leg and all the stroke symptoms started popping up.” 

Tetevano had previously been cleared for aerobic exercise, and ran the Leeds 10K on the 18th of June; however this is the first major update on the forwards return to Rugby League.

Elsewhere, Rohan Smith provided updates on other key Leeds players, including Harry Newman and Morgan Gannon.

“Yeah, they’re a few weeks away,” said Smith. “They’ve got plenty of things that they need to cover off between now and being available, but they’re trending in the right direction and they’re making progress daily and certainly weekly.”