MISSING second-row sensation Sonny Fai will stay a Warrior for 2009. The NRL club with the motto "Keeping the faith" is doing just that to honour their 20-year-old hero, presumed drowned after rescuing his young brother in surf on Auckland's west coast last Sunday.

"Sonny's locker is still there, his training gear's still sitting there, and it will remain that way all year," an emotional Warriors football manager Don Mann said yesterday.

"As far as I'm concerned, even though he's not with us now, he's still a member of our 2009 squad and everyone here feels the same way. We'll be going about our day-to-day business as if Sonny's still a part of our squad."

Mann said players were overwhelmed by "shock and disbelief" when they were told of the tragedy, which unfolded at Bethells Beach late in the afternoon seven days ago.

"Most of our squad were brought to tears once the news broke out," he said. "As the week's gone on there's been a realisation that we just want him back. We want him home to his mother and father. We were able to bring in counsellors. Whilst it's helped, the difficult thing is we still don't have Sonny."

Mann was humbled when he visited the Fai's south Auckland home to offer support, only to be embraced by Sonny's mother Tausili, worried about how the Warriors players were bearing up.

"Her main concern was, 'Are our boys OK? Tell them I love them. Tell them to look after themselves'," Mann said.

Lalelei Fai, 28, said her younger brother's being kept on the Warriors roll for this season "means the world" to their family.

"That just touched our hearts. I know that when they get out on that field, then every move and [every] tackle [will be] for Sonny," she said.

A Warriors group visited the family home on Friday night, including Mann, CEO Wayne Scurrah, captain Steve Price, legend Ruben Wiki, and players Manu Vatuvei, Sam Rapira, Ben Matulino, Brent Tate, Herman Retzlaff, Leeson Ah Mau, Upu Poching and Louis Anderson, who flew in from England on Friday.

"We had speeches [and] they all cried. It just felt like Sonny was here," Lalelei said.

Scurrah said the players would "pay respect to Sonny by doing the best we can on and off the field".

"The club is just so flat at the moment but we have a great bunch of people here - both players and management - and the best thing we can do to pay our respects for Sonny is make him proud of the club he loved," he said.

"We are also, at the same time, trying to provide support for each other and also Sonny's family. A lot of people at the club have sought counselling, which has been provided through the NRL.

"For us, the loss isn't so much about him as a player but more about the role model he was for a lot of the young kids at the club.

"He was just about to start reaching his potential and he certainly would have gone on to greatness."