mens
international
Hurt All black people prop Tamaiti Williams has given an update on his recovery from a serious back injury during Crusaders 2026. Super Rugby Pacific season.
The 26-year-old played 104 minutes for Crusaders 2026, missing the rest of the Super Rugby Pacific campaign and the international season to date.
Williams was suspended following their third-round clash with the Chiefs, before his week off was cut short by severe back pain.
Although the initial injury seemed minor, as the weeks passed, Williams was forced into the hospital for a couple of months.
Then, after surgery to add four screws to part of his back, the 27-Test All Blacks prop began his journey back for the Super Rugby Pacific franchise from Christchurch in 2027.
Williams said The good, the bad and the rugby podcast with Andy Rowe and Kieran Read is back at Canterbury’s Rugby Park.
“Yeah, that’s actually been part of my rehab at (Rugby Park). Walking up and down the gym because I’ve been stuck in a hospital bed for the last probably four months,” Williams said.
“So what happened was after the third round, Super Rugby, I got suspended and the next week I was in training, and I just thought I’d fixed my back. I went and told the physios and the medical team, and then over the next probably week and a half, it got worse, and I quickly ended up in hospital.
“The doctor put me on some meds, and when they started not working, I was like, oh, I bit my mouthguard a little bit. But then I had a little episode one night, and I was rolling around in bed, and 10 out of 10 pain, arguing with my wife about not going to the hospital.
“My mom called me and said: “I want to call the police if you don’t go to the hospital. He mostly ended up in the hospital. They weren’t quite sure what was going on. It’s a bug called MRSA. It’s like a super bug. It’s like he’s resistant to antibiotics.
“So it pretty much settled into my disc in my back, and yes, it ate my disc, really. I have four screws in my spine, T12-L1. I had to fuse it. Have you ever seen, like a tree on fire? How the inside of the tree burns first.
“Yeah, about what happened to my spine.”
There was one moment during his injury that, after talking to the doctor, made him think he would never play rugby again.
“One of the first things they told me was that I might be in a wheelchair, so we love rugby, don’t we? But I also love to walk. I was quite lucky to have it in my lower back, but if it had been in my lower back, it could have had different results.”
“When I got out of the hospital, I weighed about 122 kilograms, and because I was on such strong antibiotics, I couldn’t eat that much and I was literally disappearing.
“But my appetite is coming back and I can’t do much. Luckily I can walk around now, so I feel it will have the opposite effect now.”
“For example, I have to be very careful because I start training, I start eating more, but I still don’t train hard enough.”
Williams said his team has not planned a specific return date, focusing more on training blocks.
“Yeah, I’ve got a pretty mean team, like a couple of doctors, surgeons. We don’t have a date, but it’s more like a six-week training block, get some scans done and have another meeting.”
“But I’m still on oral (antibiotics) until mid-October. I think they’re going to clear me to run around the first day of the preseason. There’s going to be a long plan for the preseason.”