Leeds Rhinos boss hails Maika Sivo’s emotional return after 390-day injury lay-off

Leeds Rhinos winger Maika Sivo will make his long-awaited debut for the club on Friday night, after over a year of injury nightmare.

Initially signing a three-year deal, Sivo came over to Headingley from Parramatta Eels, to link up with former boss Brad Arthur once again.

After making an appearance on Boxing Day 2o24, the signs looked promising, and he took to the field again in Ash Handley’s Testimonial game against Wigan Warriors.

However, that would be the last Leeds fans would see of Sivo, who suffered an ACL tear trying to make a tackle, and was helped from the field by the Rhinos medical staff.

After a long and intense road to recovery, Friday’s game will see the Fijian international return to the pitch some 390 days later.

Leeds boss Brad Arthur confirmed that the winger, as well as four other players, would make their returns from injury on Friday night, in what is a huge boost for the club ahead of their trip to Las Vegas next week.

Commenting on Sivo, and how he has battled his way to a return, Arthur was so pleased to be able to name him in the side for this week’s contest.

“I’m more happy for him [Sivo],” said the coach. “It’s been tough on our fans and the club and our teammates for him not to play, but the person who’s suffered the most throughout this is him and his family.

“They’ve come a long way and the level of expectation was high and the commitments they’ve made to uproot their family. They’re the guys that deserve this the most, his family, and Maika gets the reward of playing this week.”

There won’t be too much pressure on how the former NRL star performs, with this week simply being about getting through the game.

“Expectations aren’t too great. He’s going to be down on his fitness. He hasn’t played for a while. We had the option, we could have put him in a reserve-grade game, but I don’t know if he’ll get much out of that.

I think we need to just throw him in the deep end and the boys will look after him.”

On his efforts to get back fit, and in a strong physical shape, he added: “He’s excited and nervous as well, I would suspect, but really proud of how hard he’s worked. I gave him some targets around his weight.

“When we did the jerseys at the start of the year, I gave him the option he can either get number two or number 22. He had to get under 112kg. As soon as he got under 112kg, I said he had to be under 110kg.

“Today he’s weighed in at 108.8kg, so he’s done really well. He’s not a bloke that carries body fat, but he’s just a big man. I just feel like he’s going to be able to carry and do a better job at a lighter weight.”