Manly have been dealt a major blow on the eve of finals, with the star fullback Tom Trbojevic suffering a likely season-ending pectoral injury in Saturday night's loss to the Storm.
The 22-year old ruptured the muscle while trying to tackle Melbourne's Josh Addo-Carr, and after trying to play on, was forced to exit the game just two minutes later.
Scans will determine the extent of the injury, but Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler was not expecting good news.
"It doesn't look good for Tom. It looks like it's a ruptured pec," Hasler toldย NRL Media post-match.
"You'd think that kind of injury would be season ending given the time we've got left. We'll go through the usual procedures but it's a ruptured pec.
"The time of the year it's disappointing, he's such a classy player. To now miss the finals series. He'd be disappointed about that.
"It's been one of those years for him, it's just unfortunate the footy gods work that way but he's young and will get enough opportunity."
Trbojevic was not the only Sea Eagle to go down on the night, with forward Morgan Boyle also at risk of missing the rest of the season with a shoulder issue.
"We've got a couple of serious injuries on the back of that," Hasler said.
"Our depth is already tested. The timing is the tough thing for the club. The side has showed all year that they're resilient and someone will come in."
The loss will make it tough for Manly to secure a top-four finish ahead of next week's clash against Parramatta.
"We'll have to do better than tonight," Hasler said. "They were very clinical, very composed with the ball and we made too many errors with the ball.
"It's something we can fix. We need to address that quick smart. The players are disappointed especially with how many fans.
I don't think it was the occasion. Melbourne didn't have to do too much tonight."
Has he ever played a full season with an injury, he is far to injury prone to be considered 1 of the best players in in game.
The Chambers incident shows that removing mwse from the NRL is the right decision. By far the worst fan base in behaviour and numbers, its time to disband this stain
Back2Smack19 what has injury got to do with measuring the ability of a player?
No need to respond to this one, will just be more gibberish from you.
Very sad to see. He is a great player and has a huge influence on how Manly perform. Hope he gets well soon
As a Storm fan, I was disappointed by the Chambers incident. Firstly, he shouldn’t have been binned in the first place but to then behave as that Manly fan did is a complete disgrace. But these sorts of people are every where in life and you can’t really blame the club for the action of a rogue individual.
I see in the press there is much talk about disbanding a Sydney club. Personally I think we should bite the bullet and remove 2 Sydney based clubs and admit both Perth and Brisbane 2.
Typical Stephanie has no clue, who would pay 1m for a player that canโt finish a season. Maybe if the south Sydney stain dropped there injury prone half back they would be going a bit better.
sad to see. back2back you’re a dead-set drop kick. Trbojevic is one of the best players in the game regardless of his injuries. Look at Teddy, he’s had a few injury riddled seasons before he played for the Chooks.