Tonga coach by Katoa's side as star remains in hospital

Eli Katoa is likely to leave hospital this week but the Storm forward must stay in Auckland until he's cleared to fly, following a series of head knocks suffered in the Pacific Championships.

The Tongan star had fluid drained from his brain following a match against New Zealand.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports Tonga coach Kristian Woolf has remained in Auckland and visited his player in hospital daily alongside the player's family. It's understood the coach won't return to Australia until he is confident Katoa will make a full recovery.

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The report states Katoa's condition has improved and he had his best day yet on Monday.

He will remain in hospital until possibly Thursday but then will need to remain in New Zealand until given clearance to fly home to Victoria.

The NRL has investigated the circumstances that led to Katoa being allowed to take the field after TV cameras caught the moment he was hurt during warm-up.

Tonga officials said they were not made aware of the footage until after full-time, and said they would have ruled him out if they had known. They asked the NRL why no one had alerted the doctors to the TV vision.

It's understood the NRL's integrity unit has completed its probe into the matter, but the findings will not be made public until they are confident Katoa will make a full recovery.

Katoa was never well enough to be interviewed by the NRL.