Tamaiti Williams offers encouraging return update after scary back injury

Injured All Blacks prop Tamaiti Williams has provided an update on his recovery from a serious back injury during the Crusaders’ 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season.

The 26-year-old played 104 minutes for the Crusaders in 2026, missing the rest of the Super Rugby Pacific campaign and the international season to date.

Williams was suspended after their round three clash with the Chiefs, before his week off was cut short by severe back pain.

While the initial injury seemed minor, as the weeks went by, Williams was forced into hospital for a chunk of time over a couple of months.

Then, after surgery to add four screws into part of his back, the 27-Test All Blacks prop has started his journey to return for the Christchurch-based Super Rugby Pacific franchise in 2027.

Williams told The Good, The Bad, & The Rugby podcast with Andy Rowe and Kieran Read that he’s back at Canterbury’s Rugby Park.

“Yeah, that was actually 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 round three, Super Rugby, I got suspended, and the next week I was in training, and I just thought I’d tweaked 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 fast-forward, I ended up in hospital.

“Doc had me on some meds, and when they started not working, I was like, oh, bite down on the mouthguard a bit. But then I had a bit of an episode one night, and I was rolling around in bed, and 10 out of 10 pain, arguing with my wife not to go to the hospital.

“My mum gave me a call and said, “I want to call the police if you don’t go to the hospital. Pretty much ended up in hospital. They weren’t too sure what was going on. It’s a bug called MRSA. It’s like a super bug. It’s like resistant to antibiotics.

“So pretty much settled in my disc in my back, and yeah, ate away at my disc, really. I’ve got four screws in my spine, T12-L1. I had to get it fused. Have you ever seen, like a tree on fire? How the inside of the tree like, burns first.

“Yeah, pretty much what happened to my spine.”

There was one moment during his injury that made him think he would never play rugby again, following a conversation with the doctor.

“One of the first things they told me is I might be in a wheelchair, so we love rugby, right? But I like walking too. I was pretty lucky that it’s in my, mid-back, but if it was in my lower back, it could have had different outcomes.”

“When I left the hospital, I was about 122 kilos, and because I was on such strong antibiotics, I couldn’t eat that much, and I was literally fading away.

“But my appetite’s coming back, and I can’t do much activity. Luckily, I can walk around in that now, so I feel like it’s going to have the opposite effect now.

“Like, I’ve got to be real careful because starting to train, starting to eat more, but not still not training hard enough.”

Williams said his team haven’t planned a specific return date, focusing more on training blocks.

“Yes, I have a pretty mean team, like a few doctors, surgeons. We don’t have a date, but it’s more like a six-week block of training, have some scans, and have another meeting.

“But I’m still on orals [antibiotics] till like mid-October. I think they’re giving me the okay to run around day one of preseason. There’ll be a long preseason plan.”