New Zealand Warriors front rower Addin Fonua-Blake failed to finish last weekend's clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and the reason has become clear.
The 25-year-old took to Instagram overnight to share a video of the compound fracture to his finger, which is set to rule him out for a number of weeks.
The footage below seems to show a hold in Fonua-Blake's finger where the bone may have pierced the skin.
⚠️ Warning - Graphic ⚠️
Video shows aftermath of Addin Fonua-Blake’s compound finger injury (bone fractures/dislocates significantly enough to break through skin). Appears to have good movement, increases hope for a dislocation as opposed to a fracture. Quicker recovery if so pic.twitter.com/OvjeC7wGad— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) July 26, 2021
Fonua-Blake, who has only returned from a long-term injury in the past few weeks, has been one of the Warriors' best, playing 76 minutes in Round 18 following four injuries to Warriors' players which left them with just 13 men.
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NRL Physio said on Twitter that Fonua-Blake could be looking at a shorter recover if it was only a dislocation. However, the long-term option could end his season.
Suspected compound finger fracture (bone pierces skin) for Addin Fonua-Blake. If fracture confirmed usually 4-8 week recovery for adequate bone healing. Best case would be fracture avoided & just compound dislocation, can see a return as quick as 1-3 weeks pic.twitter.com/RsroEEzZcq
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) July 24, 2021
Fonua-Blake's injury joins a mounting list for the Warriors, with Wayde Egan and Tohu Harris having their seasons finished in Round 18 due to a shoulder and ACL injury respectively.
Round 19 then saw Fonua-Blake injured as well as Jack Murchie and Eliesa Katoa who went off for HIA injuries, while Matt Lodge also copped a charge, further straining the Warriors already stressed front row stocks.
The Warriors are all but out of finals contention, with coach Nathan Brown conceding in the post game press conference after their loss to the Rabbitohs that it'd be tough.
"I think that is starting to look beyond us now, if we are being truthful," Brown said.
"I'd like to say it is not but you get to a stage where there's only so many games left and for us we haven't had a win for a while and we lost some more troops today.
"For us it is more about what we did last week. We started to put things in place (against the Panthers) that is going to help us going forward but today I felt we went backwards a little bit.
"We knew coming in today it was going to be a difficult task but I just thought we could have made a better account of ourselves in the early 20 to 30 minutes of the contest."
