Courageous Blues forward Cameron Suafoa reveals cancer battle

The 25-year-old will be stepping away from the game to battle the illness after undergoing surgery to remove a tumour soon after his diagnosis at the end of last year.

Initially, the forward continued playing and even featured off the bench for the Blues against the Waratahs only a day after radiation treatment. That was a week after he started for the Auckland side against the Hurricanes, also in and amongst his treatment.

Suafoa explained his diagnosis in a video on X, formerly Twitter, where he detailed how it has affected his health.

"I've recently been diagnosed with cancer," Suafoa said.

"I've been going through radiation treatment for the last month and a bit."

The second-row outlined that it is the afternoons when his energy fades but still had a positive mindset in how he looked forward to bouncing back stronger.

"In the mornings, I am normally pretty good, because I just woke up, I'm full of energy," he explained.

"It's normally after 12 or one when I tend to decline, fatigue-wise. I get real tired easily," he added, with the tiredness meaning he would have to take a break from playing.

"Right now, it is what it is. I can't change the fact I am going through this.

"Hopefully I can come back from this fitter and stronger."

Suafoa admitted to being in denial about the situation at the beginning and revealed that it took him a while to let his family know the diagnosis.

"Physically, I felt fine. Looking back on it, I probably wasn't ready to admit, even to myself, that I was going through this. I guess I was in the denial stage," he said.

"It was a few weeks before I told my family."