The Brisbane Broncos have received some positive news about the playing future of Brendan Piakura, with the star back rower being given the green light to return to the NRL.
Piakura's future in the NRL was met with plenty of uncertainty when he was given the rest of the year off following a nasty head knock in the club's win over Penrith in July.
With a bunch of concussions occurring in the past few years, the Broncos sat Piakura on the sidelines for the rest of the year following the Round 20 head knock, fuelling concern for an early retirement.
In a massive boost, Piakura has received the green light from brain specialists to get back into the NRL, with News Corp reporting Piakura will continue his career in 2027 after heading to Victoria for testing.
Piakura has undergone similar brain trauma testing Kalyn Ponga underwent after a series of concussions, which threatened his playing career.
Since then, Ponga has yet to suffer a nasty concussion and has been in some career-best form for the Newcastle Knights in the last two years.
Piakura was only limited to 12 appearances in 2026 in an inconsistent campaign for both the Cook Island international and the Broncos team as a whole.
2025 marked one of the most impressive years for Piakura since his 2021 NRL debut, playing at a highly consistent level, which saw him heavily involved in the Broncos snapping a 19-year premiership drought.
Piakura's management told News Corp about the positive update.
“Brendan went down to Melbourne to do some assessments and they did some specialist scanning of his brain,” his agent Allan Gainey told the publication.
“The Broncos sent Brendan to a specialist as a sort of precaution and he did some additional testing.
“The good news is it's all systems go (for Piakura to play again).”
Piakura will still have to tweak his tackling technique to ensure his head doesn't connect with any hips, knees, or elbows during the 2027 preseason.
Similarly to what we saw with Jake Trbojevic, who suffered a string of bad knockouts in 2025, he returned this year with a fresh headgear look and readjusted his tackling approach, getting through the season unscathed.
But Maguire is adamant Piakura will need to apply a few changes to his tackling to ensure a smooth-sailing ride throughout the rest of his career.,
“He is putting his head in the wrong spot,” Maguire said.
“We'll look at all those things.
“We've been talking about that (Piakura's tackling style) since I've been here.
“He's had a few issues. He plays the game hard. I think we've just got to make sure we practise the areas of his game where, whether it's fatigue or the application of how he does things, we definitely will work at that.
“They're all things ‘Brendy' and myself are talking about, about how we can help him when he's ready to go.”
The Broncos will be looking to put the woes of 2026 behind them after recording one of the worst title defence runs in history.
The club has made a quality splash in the player market, recruiting veteran Dane Gagai, Mitchell Barnett, Shawn Blore and Jonah Pezet to strengthen their squad for 2027.
