30 Sep 2010

Tahu says he was forced to play NRL with injury

6:41 am on 30 September 2010

The Australia rugby league player Timana Tahu says the sacked Eels coach, Daniel Anderson, forced him to play through a debilitating ankle injury in a bid to save the club's National Rugby League season.

Following Anderson's sacking from the club after an extraordinary board meeting on Monday, Tahu says the former Kiwis coach ignored medical advice and forced Tahu to play with the complaint.

Tahu says he sustained the injury during the City-Country game in May, and it's been difficult to play with.

He says it still hasn't recovered.

The Eels struggled to live up to expectations throughout a poor 2010 campaign, with their pre-season premiership favouritism finishing in a 12th-placed finish.

Tahu says he could've done things better during the season to get back to 100 per cent, but Anderson wanted players on the field training and it just got worse..

Tahu backed the board's decision to release Anderson from the final year of his contract, and the current New Zealand coach, Stephen Kearney, is the hot tip to get the job ahead of the former Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart.