Cancer-stricken Blues star Cameron Suafoa will make an emotional return off the bench tonight against the Rebels in the Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific Competition. He stepped away from Super Rugby when the fatigue from his treatment became too much after playing against the Waratahs in March.
Nobody could have envisaged it would happen this quick but maybe we should have all considered it a possibility given the courage 25 year old Suafoa has already shown in his battle with cancer.
Suafoa played his 20th and blazer game for the Blues in March - after dashing to Sydney late the night before when he had completed his week’s radiation - but was then forced to temporarily step away from rugby.
At that time, the Māori All Blacks and All Blacks XV representative’s treatment for a cancerous tumour in his back was causing extreme fatigue.
His ongoing treatment and much changed diet was making it impossible - even for someone as lionhearted as Suafoa - to continue as a professional athlete.
But he vowed to be back and on tonight, the towering lock or flanker will make an emotional return to the field.
Suafoa, who captains North Harbour in the NPC, has been named on the bench for the Blues away clash against the Rebels in Melbourne.
He first revealed the life changing news last month in an emotive and powerful video alongside his partner, Britt Hastings-Kutty.
The couple’s life was tipped upside down by the diagnosis last November. Suafoa had a tumour removed almost immediately.
He defied the odds by playing on for as long as he did into the Super Rugby Pacific season and now he’s done it again, by returning less than a month after announcing he was taking a break.
The Blues meet the Rebels at 9.35 tonight while the Hurricanes host the Waratahs at 7.05pm.
In other games, Moana Pasifika play the Highlanders in Tonga at 2.05pm tomorrow, the Crusaders play the Reds at 4.35pm, the Chiefs meet the Force at 7.05pm tomorrow, while the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua play the Brumbies at 9.35pm in Canberra.
source :
stuff.co.nz
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