Damning detail about Latrell as calls grow for 'investigation' into Souths crisis

Yahoo

20 hours ago

Phil Rothfield has called for an 'investigation' into South Sydney's injury crisis, and a damning detail about Latrell Mitchell sums it up perfectly. The Rabbitohs have been absolutely decimated by injuries in 2025, and currently sit last on the NRL ladder with six rounds remaining in the regular season.
Wayne Bennett is staring down the barrel of his first-ever wooden spoon, but there's not much he can do without so many of his star players. Captain Cameron Murray hasn't played all year after rupturing his Achilles in the pre-season, while superstars Mitchell, Cody Walker and Campbell Graham have spent large chunks of the year on the sideline.
Mitchell recently tore his calf on the training paddock, which has become all-too common for the Rabbitohs. Questions have previously been raised about the club's new training facilities at Heffron Park, which has replaced Redfern Oval as the team's base.
And speaking on Monday, veteran journalist Rothfield suggested it can't be a coincidence. Rothfield pointed out that a lot of the Rabbitohs' injuries have occurred at training - including Murray's and two for Mitchell this year.
'Souths need an investigation into their injuries, they really do," he said on Sky Sports radio. "Their sports science, their high-performance. A lot of them have happened at training. Whoever on Souths high performance staff four years ago advised their recruitment team that Adam Reynolds was a risk longer than a year has made a gigantic error in my view.'
Rothfield highlighted a damning stat that Broncos veteran Reynolds has played 20 more games than Mitchell since departing the Rabbitohs for Brisbane. 'He has played 5,592 minutes since Souths said he was a year-by-year proposition," he added.
The stats around the amount of matches that Mitchell has missed since moving to the Rabbitohs are galling for Souths fans. In four years at the Roosters he played 11 more games than he's done in six seasons at the Bunnies.
Latrell Mitchell is expected to miss at least a month after suffering a significant quadriceps injury at Rabbitohs training today (via @MCarayannis).Likely moderate grade strain/partial tear with that recovery timeframe. Rabbitohs season from hell on the injury front continues. pic.twitter.com/LrKDD44VaP
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) July 17, 2025
Calls for NRL to shorten regular season
Rothfield suggested the NRL needs to consider changing the schedule to protect the game's top players. Mitchell is among a number of the game's elite players who feature at club, Origin and Test level every season.
'It is for the elite players, for the players who play finals every year. They play State of Origin, they play trial matches, they play the All-Stars game,' Rothfield said.
'They then have an international series. Then they got their six weeks off, then they get an interrupted pre-season. You've got to look at the welfare and you've got to look at injuries across the competition. Look at Souths. Latrell, Walker, Murray, Campbell Graham, Keaon Koloamatangi.'
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South Sydney's 'laughable' injury toll
Speaking last week, Souths veteran Jai Arrow described the injury toll as "laughable". In Round 22 against the Broncos they'll be without Mitchell, Walker, Murray, Koloamatangi, Brandon Smith, Tevita Tatola, Euan Aitken, Jayden Sullivan, Mikaele Ravalawa and Davvy Moale due to injuries, while Jack Wighton is banned for the next three games.
"It's pretty crazy and pretty laughable with the amount of people we have missing at the moment," Arrow said. "But it is what it is, all you've got to do is keep turning up and enjoying each other's company and turn up for each other on the field. That's all we can do, really."