Melbourne prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona appears certain to miss the commencement of the Storm's pre-season training schedule after taking to Instagram to further entrench his vaccination standpoint.
Given the forward made news last Friday due to his potential to become the first player across the competition to be stood down due to his jab status, the 25-year-old's social media 'double down' has only accelerated this likelihood.
Although Asofa-Solomona is under no current obligation to receive any form of Covid vaccination due to the NRL's lack of a blanket mandate, Victorian state laws stipulate that workers must have been inoculated twice by November 26 to return to work.
While the Storm remained hopeful that the impact player would have a change of heart ahead of their December 7 return to work date, the Kiwi international's social media post from Thursday afternoon has likely put paid to this.
โFront line nurses speaking out. Ask the question, why are they willing to lose their job to not get the juice? What are they seeing that we donโt see,โ he posted over an image of nurses protesting in South Australia from his 'Nellyfromwelly' Instagram account.
As stated byย Fox Sports,ย Asofa-Solomona would need to undertake his first round of immunization from next week in an effort to receive both prior to the cut off date in the southern state.
Should Asofa-Solomona maintain his current stance, the Wellington-born bruiser stands to lose in the vicinity of $1.35 million promised to him across the course of the final two seasons of his deal.
Still, as laws on returning to work remain far more lenient north of AAMI Park, if Melbourne are forced to cut ties with Asofa-Solomona, he would then be free to negotiate and sign with any number of clubs throughout the competition.
At the time of writing, the Storm are yet to make any further comment on the forward's latest line in the sand.
