NRL 2021: NZ Warriors star Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to miss birth of third child as Kiwi club relocate to Queensland

NZ Warriors star Dallin Watene-Zelezniak will miss the birth of his third child, after the Kiwi club relocated to Queensland from New South Wales.

After Sunday's decision to see 12 NRL sides, including the Warriors, head north from New South Wales to Queensland, the Kiwi club's players have again had to pack their bags and move.

And for mid-season signing Watene-Zelezniak, that move will mean saying goodbye to his partner, about to give birth.

Watene-Zelezniak's partner won't be permitted to join the side until they've served a mandatory 14 day quarantine period after arriving in their new Queensland base.

"Dallin's probably in a whole new situation [with] the sacrifice he's making," coach Nathan Brown says.

"His partner's going to give birth, and he chose to come away.

"He's going to unfortunately miss the birth of his child, his third child to be in camp. I don't think his partner's due for [another] couple of weeks.

"By the time we isolate, he would have missed mostly the rest of the year.

"Obviously we were very supportive of him doing that. It's a bit of a different situation with Dallin."

The 12 NRL teams - being the nine Sydney clubs, the Warriors, Newcastle Knights and Canberra Raiders - are now in bubbles that include a combined 41 players and staff, with family members allowed to join after 14 days of quarantine on arrival in Queensland.

Players will remain under the same bio-security restrictions enforced by the NRL last month, limiting their movements to games, training and essential household tasks for at least two weeks.

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