Parramatta Eels young gun ruled out for entire 2024 NRL season with training ground injury
Arthur Miller-Stephen on his NRL debut for Parramatta Eels in 2023 - Alamy
Parramatta Eels youngster Arthur Miller-Stephen has been ruled out for the entire 2024 season courtesy of a serious knee injury he picked up during a training session.
The full-back – born in 2003 – made his NRL debut in Round 23 of the 2023 campaign, scoring the opening try in a 26-20 victory against St George Illawarra Dragons on home soil.
Also able to feature on the wing, Miller-Stephen is a Queensland native and donned a shirt for semi-professional outfit Mackay Cutters before linking up with Parramatta in 2022.
Having also featured nine times for the Eels’ New South Wales Cup side this year, scoring four tries, it had looked like 2024 could be another season of progression, but this injury has halted those ambitions in their tracks.
Parramatta Eels provide injury update as young gun Arthur Miller-Stephen is ruled out for the entirety of the 2024 NRL season
Brad Arthur’s men will look to improve on the 10th-place finish they achieved on the ladder this term come 2024. Earlier today, they released an injury update on their club website, with Miller-Stephen the worst-affected of the eight players named.
Co-captain Clint Gutherson is also recovering from a knee injury which he picked up in their final fixture of the 2023 season, with ‘aims’ to be fit for the start of the new campaign.
Elsewhere, both Daejarn Asi and Makahesi Makatoa picked up problems following their appearances in this autumn’s Pacific Championships for Samoa & the Cook Islands respectively.
Back Asi ruptured a tendon in his finger, while forward Makatoa tore a pectoral muscle. Both of that pair had surgery on those injuries, and will return to training in the New Year, but no return date has been set for either.
Come January, they will be joined back out on the training pitch by co-captain Junior Paulo, who too went under the knife at the end of the campaign trying to resolve what has been described as ‘a chronic toe injury’.
More positively for the Blue and Golds, a trio of their pack have freed up some space on the treatment table having all returned to training this week.
Half-back Mitchell Moses has recovered from a fractured eye socket, while Matt Doorey and Zac Cini – who each picked up a knock at the back end of the 2023 season – are back at full fitness now.