NRL star Tom Opacic faces more heartbreak after the bizarre death of his brother in an alleged prison love triangle showdown near a Gold Coast jail, with Sydney’s worsening Covid crisis set to see him barred from attending the Queensland funeral next week.
Jake Opacic, 28, was killed in a motorbike crash near Numinbah Correctional Centre last week after going to the jail for the release of his girlfriend and allegedly getting into a verbal stoush with her ex and his friend.
Both men have been charged with Jake’s murder, with police alleging his motorcycle was deliberately struck by their vehicle.
Sources say Tom Opacic, a former Brisbane Bronco and North Queensland Cowboy who now
plays for the Parramatta Eels, has applied for NRL and Queensland Health exemptions to attend the funeral next week.
But he faces an uphill battle given
Sydney’s Covid catastrophe and concerns over repeated breaches of the NRL’s biosecurity bubble by players.
The Eels are due to play the Gold Coast Titans at Robina’s Cbus Stadium next Friday night but under bubble rules, Opacic would only be allowed to fly in for the game on a charter plane with teammates, catch a bus to the ground and return to Sydney soon after the final whistle.
Sources say the NRL and Queensland Health would be extremely unlikely to grant him an exemption to attend the funeral as Sydney’s Covid outbreak worsens.
The NRL is also conscious of the biosecurity bubble’s fragility after Covid protocols were recklessly flouted by a raft of St George Dragons players and Maroons star Jai Arrow, who
was sent packing from the Queensland camp this week after sneaking a woman into his Gold Coast hotel room.
Opacic is set to become the latest in a string of grieving relatives to be refused permission to visit a dying loved one or attend a funeral in Queensland because of hard line Covid restrictions
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