Former Cronulla front-rower Andrew Fifita has decided to retire from rugby league.
The 33-year-old, who scored the match-winning try in the Sharks’ 2016 grand final victory, had been on the lookout for a new club after Cronulla decided against offering him a new deal.
But Nine’s Danny Weidler reports that Fifita’s fitness will force him into retirement, having played 252 first grade matches, including 213 for Cronulla.
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His final match for the Sharks was the club’s elimination final loss to Souths.
He played 10 State of Origin matches for New South Wales and represented both Australia and Tonga.
Announcing his departure from the Sharks in August, Fifita had been hopeful of playing on.
“I wouldn’t say retirement,” he said at the time.
“I reckon I’ve still got another year in me somewhere else.”
Simply getting back on the field in 2022 was a major achievement for Fifita. In 2021, he revealed he sent his wife a goodbye text from the back of an ambulance, when he thought he would die after suffering a throat injury.
Fifita received an accidental elbow to the throat from an opponent, and his condition rapidly deteriorated after full time.
“They ended up cutting my neck. He said (if doctors did it) a minute later I would have died,” Fifita said.
He spent five days in an induced coma in hospital.
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