The South Sydney Rabbitohs are facing a crisis in the 2025 NRL season, with injuries decimating their squad and leaving them perilously close to receiving the wooden spoon. Veteran journalist Phil Rothfield has called for an investigation into the club’s alarming injury rate, highlighting a concerning statistic about star player Latrell Mitchell. The Rabbitohs currently languish at the bottom of the NRL ladder, with just six rounds remaining in the regular season.
Wayne Bennett, the esteemed coach of the Rabbitohs, is confronting the possibility of his first-ever wooden spoon, a scenario exacerbated by the absence of key players. Captain Cameron Murray has been sidelined all year due to a pre-season Achilles rupture, while stars like Mitchell, Cody Walker, and Campbell Graham have missed significant portions of the season.
Latrell Mitchell’s Injury Struggles
Latrell Mitchell’s tenure with the Rabbitohs has been marred by injuries. In six seasons with South Sydney, he has played fewer games than he did in four years with the Sydney Roosters. Recently, Mitchell suffered a calf tear during training, a situation that has become all too familiar for the Rabbitohs. Concerns have been raised about the club’s new training facilities at Heffron Park, which replaced Redfern Oval as the team’s base.
Speaking on Monday, Rothfield suggested that the frequency of injuries at training cannot be a mere coincidence. “Souths need an investigation into their injuries, they really do,” he stated 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.”
Comparative Analysis with Adam Reynolds
Rothfield highlighted a stark statistic: Broncos veteran Adam Reynolds has played 20 more games than Mitchell since leaving the Rabbitohs for Brisbane. “He has played 5,592 minutes since Souths said he was a year-by-year proposition,” Rothfield added. This comparison underscores the frustration of Rabbitohs fans, as Mitchell’s availability has been inconsistent.
Mitchell is expected to be out for at least a month following a significant quadriceps injury sustained during training. The Rabbitohs’ season has been plagued by injuries, with key players missing crucial games.
Calls for NRL Schedule Reform
Rothfield has also suggested that the NRL should consider revising the schedule to better protect its elite players. “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,” he noted.
“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.”
He pointed to the Rabbitohs’ roster, which includes top-tier players like Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker, Cameron Murray, and Campbell Graham, all of whom have been affected by injuries.
South Sydney’s ‘Laughable’ Injury Toll
Souths veteran Jai Arrow recently described the team’s injury toll as “laughable.” As they prepare for Round 22 against the Broncos, the Rabbitohs will be without Mitchell, Walker, Murray, Koloamatangi, and several others due to injuries, while Jack Wighton faces a three-game suspension.
“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.”
The situation at South Sydney underscores the broader challenges facing the NRL, as clubs grapple with player welfare and the physical demands of the sport. As the Rabbitohs attempt to navigate their way out of this crisis, the calls for an investigation into their injury management and training practices grow louder.
