Former Catalans Dragons forward, Sio Siua Taukeiaho, has revealed that he played with a broken foot in the club’s Grand Final defeat in 2023, and has accused the French outfit of not taking his injury seriously enough.
The Tongan international joined the club in 2023, and featured 10 times that season under Steve McNamara.
Signing a two-year deal, a mixture of injury and a falling out with the club made him return home to Australia, where he now features regularly for the Manly Sea Eagles.
The goal kicking back-rower was involved in a number of off-field problems between him and the club, including an incident in July 2024 that led to him being sacked alongside teammate Jayden Nikorima
Revealing all on the ‘MayDay‘ podcast, hosted by Samoan international Terrell May, the 33-year-old discussed his time in Perpignan, and how he believes the club downplayed the seriousness of his injury.
Taukeiaho was one of many overseas players in the Dragons squad in 2023, as they reached the Grand Final, before losing out to Wigan Warriors.
Sensationally, he was able to play the Old Trafford showdown with a broken foot, after first picking up the issue the week prior.
He said: “We played Saints in the semi-finals and during the warm-up I hear a crack in my foot, and I was just like ‘how am I going to get through this game?’”
“I managed to get through the whole game. I got off, and I just thought ‘just get through this Grand Final’.”
“Get to the Grand Final, my foot wasn’t 100%, it was already gone.”
He then went on to say that the club’s coaching staff then thought Taukeiaho was to blame for their 10-2 defeat, despite his injury.
“We lost and they started blaming me,” he said.
“It was funny, because, when I was done, they were just like ‘we got you here to win a Premiership and you didn’t achieve that.’ I was playing on a broken foot.
“We had a mad team that year. Pearcey [Mitchell Pearce] and your brother [Tyrone May] as our halves, like we had a mad team.
“We ended up losing and I was keen as to get on the out.”
“It p***** me off” – Former Catalans Dragons forward accuses club of playing down serious injury
That defeat was the beginning of the end for the Tongan’s Dragons career, and after that game didn’t make an appearance for the club again.
Taukeiaho went on to claim that Catalans neglected his injury, and originally denied him surgery on an issue that would be classed as a serious injury in Australia.
He said: “France looks at certain injuries a different way. A big injury here is a little injury over there.
“I had a lisfranc injury, which is big here. When you first do it, it’s like a three-month recovery, and if you keep playing on it, you’ll need surgery… it takes like six to seven months to recover from.
“Over in France, it’s not a big thing… they didn’t want to sort it, they wanted me to keep playing on it.
“I kept playing on it and it just kept getting worse. Every time I stepped off it, I can just hear a crack in my foot, and I’d just play on and say I’ll go again the following week.
Reports at this time emerged that the Canterbury Bulldogs were a front runner to sign the forward, however a failed medical put an end to the move. after pleading with the Dragons staff to do the surgery, the damage had already been done for Taukeiaho, and was already set on leaving.
“I ended up going back to France and told them what happened. I go ‘look, I just failed my medical, can you guys just do this one thing and get my surgery done so I can just head back home?’ and I struggled to get them to do it.
“This was the start of my final year with them and they’re like ‘it’s going to take six months, we’ll just rehab it so you can play on your last year and then go home.’ That just p***** me off. That p***** me off and I didn’t really care what I was doing at the club.
“If you’re not going to look after me, then don’t tell me what to do. I ended up doing whatever [I wanted]. I just took my time with everything.
“I managed to get the surgery done just before I left the club, and then when I started walking and once I was ready to walk again, I booked the ticket and went to the concert (the incident he was sacked for).
Discussion about this post