South Sydney Rabbitohs head coach Wayne Bennett has delivered a firm rebuke to calls for injury-linked performance clauses in star centre Latrell Mitchell’s next contract, while maintaining cautious optimism that the representative rugby league superstar will take the field again before the end of the current National Rugby League (NRL) season.
Mitchell, 29, has not appeared in a match since the Rabbitohs’ Round 11 defeat to the Dolphins. What started as a lower-back injury has since been compounded by a persistent calf issue that forced the superstar to cut a recent training session short. Last week, Mitchell consulted a specialist neurologist to pinpoint the root cause of his ongoing injury troubles, and his availability remains assessed on a weekly basis as South Sydney fights to secure a place in the NRL finals.
Addressing media, Bennett pushed back against speculation that Mitchell’s season is already over. “We don’t know that (if he’s played his last game this season). It’s a week-by-week proposition,” the coach said. “He’s back running now which is good, so we’ll see how that goes. Of course I do (hope that we get him back this year) and he does too because he wants to play. It’s not like he’s trying to avoid playing. It’s something we have no control over. We have good people around him with experts in their field, so we’ve just got to wait and see now.”
While Bennett joked that Mitchell could avoid injury by switching to the low-impact racket sport pickleball, he turned serious when discussing public calls to structure the centre’s next contract around match availability. Mitchell has one year remaining on his current deal, with industry speculation projecting his next contract could carry a salary cap value of roughly $1.4 million per season.
Widely regarded as the most destructive active player in the NRL when fully fit, Mitchell has only featured in 31 first-grade games since the start of the 2024 season. This high rate of injury-related absence has led some pundits and fans to argue the Rabbitohs should add incentive-based clauses to his next deal, that would tie his salary directly to the number of games he plays. A similar structure was previously floated for Manly Sea Eagles star Tom Trbojevic, who has dealt with repeated hamstring injuries throughout his career.
Bennett rejected the proposal outright, calling it a bad idea that undermines the fundamental nature of player contracts. “It’s a terrible idea and I’m not interested in it,” Bennett said. “It’s just a bit of misfortune that creates the problem. It’s not because him or Tom or others don’t do all the work and all the training. You’ve either got a contract or you haven’t. We’re not going to make one up based on how many games you played. That’s not going to happen, not at the good clubs anyway.”
In other team news ahead of the Rabbitohs’ Friday night clash against the Melbourne Storm, forward John Radel has been named in the starting line-up after star forward David Fifita received a two-match suspension from the NRL judiciary. With starting lock Cameron Murray and young forward Tallis Duncan both sidelined by injury, Thomas Fletcher has been elevated to the game day bench.