{"id":335822,"date":"2023-10-03T00:42:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T00:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=335822"},"modified":"2023-10-03T02:02:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T02:02:16","slug":"meninga-surprised-by-latrell-sight-after-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=335822","title":{"rendered":"Meninga 'surprised' by Latrell sight after withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian coach Mal Meninga<\/a> was "surprised" to see Latrell Mitchell<\/a> play the Koori Knockout, but has no issue with the superstar opting out of Kangaroos<\/a> selection.<\/p>\n

Mitchell made himself unavailable for the Prime Minister's XIII and the Pacific Championships\ufeff, citing a finger injury at the end of South Sydney's season.<\/p>\n

But he was on the NSW Central Coast \ufeffover the long weekend to take part in the annual Indigenous rugby league carnival which attracts some of the game's biggest stars, as well as a host of bush footy players.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Meninga unveils 21-player squad for Pacific Championships\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>'Angry' Wallabies star set to hang up the boots<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>'Superhuman' NRL star's heart-breaking reaction to disaster<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mitchell was not on Meninga's 21-player list unveiled Tuesday morning<\/a> for games against Samoa and New Zealand later this month.<\/p>\n

\"Latrell<\/p>\n

\ufeff"The club said that he's out because of injury, so we've just gone with that," Meninga said.<\/p>\n

South Sydney gave Mitchell their blessing to play the Koori Knockout, and Meninga was not about to criticise the player or the Rabbitohs.<\/p>\n

"I was a bit surprised, but the club gave him permission to do that," the coach said.<\/p>\n

"Knowing Latrell, he loves the Koori Knockout, he always gets involved… a very proud First Nations person.<\/p>\n

"He's got through that tournament well and (I) look forward to him having a good off-season and playing well next year."<\/p>\n

Mitchell was embroiled in a bizarre post-season story when a man went on 2GB radio to accuse the Bunnies star of refusing to take a photo with his grandchildren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Addo-Carr<\/p>\n

Mitchell and the Rabbitohs were furious at that criticism, given the time and effort he puts into giving back to Aboriginal communities in particular.<\/p>\n

Mitchell last week won the Ken Stephens Medal\ufeff at the Dally M awards for his community work.<\/p>\n

His form on the field was down in the second half of the NRL season, following a calf injury suffered before the first Origin game, and Meninga wants Mitchell to take a break rather than represent the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

"Off the back of the World Cup it was a pretty torrid year. He got his first injury through State of Origin in the training camp, and didn't really seem to get going after that," Meninga said.<\/p>\n

"He's had a bit of bad luck this year and I think the rest is going to do him the world of good, get his mind right and get his body right and be a force for the Rabbitohs next year.\ufeff"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian coach Mal Meninga was "surprised" to see Latrell Mitchell play the Koori Knockout, but has no issue with the superstar opting out of Kangaroos […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":330614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335822"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335826,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335822\/revisions\/335826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/330614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}