An injury update has been provided on the status of four-time premiership winner and two-time Clive Churchill medallist Nathan Cleary ahead of the 2025 NRL season.
Although Cleary will undergo a Latarjet procedure on November 4 and is facing 15 weeks on the sidelines, the halfback is expected to be back for the club's opening match against the Cronulla Sharks at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
This comes after he missed the 2024 Pacific Championships due to injury for the Australian Kangaroos and has spent the past few weeks overseas in the United Kingdom with his partner and Manchester City, and Matildas star forward Mary Fowler.
Penrith fans would remember that he missed the opening three matches and wouldn't return to Round 4 in 2022 due to the same procedure at the end of the 2021 season following his first NRL Premiership victory against the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
"It has been a frustrating year. You just feel like the times I've been injured, I just feel bad that I'm not they're able to go to battle alongside my brothers," the star halfback said previously.
"It's almost embarrassing sometimes getting those injuries, then having to take time out again. It has been an up and down year."
The Herald has also revealed that 2024 Clive Churchill Medal winner Liam Martin will not require surgery on an AC joint problem that ruled him out of the 2024 Pacific Championships for the Kangaroos.
Mal Meninga originally selected the boom second-rower but he was subsequently replaced by Canberra Raiders forward Hudson Young, who recently made his international debut.
It is understood that fellow Penrith teammate Liam Henry underwent the knife recently but the duo will be back for the opening game of the 2025 season that will be held overseas in Las Vegas, United States of America.