Dolphins head coach Kristian Woolf has revealed former Queensland State of Origin prop Thomas Flegler is no guarantee of a 2025 return.
Flegler, who suffered a nerve injury to his shoulder in 2024, missed almost the entire season and there were genuine fears for his career at one point.
It was revealed recently that he is back training, but in a further update, Kristian Woolf was quoted by News Corp as suggesting Flegler will not be back before the middle of 2025 in the best case scenario, but could miss the entire campaign.
โHe had surgery at the end of last season and it's a waiting game to see how the shoulder responds,โ Woolf said.
โWe'll get checkpoints along the way to figure out what happens next and how long until he's looking to play.
โThat could be somewhere between mid-season (2025) and the start of 2026.
โAll indications are the surgery went really well and everyone is really positive that he'll be looking to get back on the field somewhere in that time frame.โ
Despite his surgery going well and the prospects of a return now being in the works, it has been something of a disaster, the signing of Flegler has been something of a disaster for the Dolphins.
Signed as the man to lead the Dolphins' forward pack from the Brisbane Broncos, he has played just a handful of games for the club.
The club have now added Daniel Saifiti for the 2025 NRL campaign after he was released from the Newcastle Knights, while the Dolphins, who missed out on the finals by a narrow margin in the campaign just gone, will also have Tom Gilbert back on the park in the forwards.
The duo of Saifiti and Gilbert will help the Dolphins in replacing retiring stalwart Jesse Bromwich, with the inaugural club captain hanging up the boots.
