Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has confirmed Josh Schuster will be another couple of weeks before he returns to the field, but is hopeful that Tom Trbojevic will be back on the park in magic round against the Brisbane Broncos.
He also confirmed that both Cooper Johns and Lachlan Croker are okay after question marks during the game, while young winger Christian Tuipulotu could be left to battle a knee injury.
All three fresh concerns for the Sea Eagles came during their loss to the Gold Coast Titans at a wet Brookvale on Saturday evening, with Schuster and Trbojevic missing the clash.
Trbojevic was ruled out on Friday after originally being named on Tuesday, having suffered a minor injury during last week's win over the Wests Tigers.
Seibold revealed that it was only during a final fitness test Trbojevic was ruled out, and the hope is that he will be fit to resume the number one jersey next week after Kaeo Weekes played at the back against the Titans.
"Tom is a chance. When we made the decision to rule him out yesterday, he did do a fitness test, he started running and could feel it a little bit. We just thought we need to take the conservative route," Seibold said.
"So it's seven days from yesterday [since he originally hurt himself], so we think he is a good chance and the medical staff will do their best to get him right. Tom knows his body but we would like to think he will be right to play the Broncos."
The news is not so good on Seibold, who continues to battle injuries. His move to five-eighth in 2023 has barely got out of first gear, with constant injury issues ruling him out.
The former second-rower will likely be replaced by Cooper Johns again for next week's clash with the Broncos.
"Don't think so," Seibold said.
"He will be a couple of weeks, so I don't expect him to play next week."
The two spine players injuries were joined by a handful of new questions during the loss to the Titans, but Seibold confirmed at least two of them are fine, while Tuipulotu had 'a bit of a tweak', instead of anything major, although he could still need scans to ascertain the extent of any damage.
"Injury wise, Cooper [Johns] came off for a HIA, but he was fine. Crokes [Lachlan Croker] got split pretty badly but he finished the game. CT [Christian Tuipulotu] had a bit of a tweak to his knee there at the end, but fingers crossed he is okay."
The Sea Eagles have a six-day turnaround to their magic round Friday night blockbuster with the Brisbane Broncos with both teams sitting in the top four, but to enter the game off a loss - the Sea Eagles could drop to as low as sixth by the end of the round if the New Zealand Warriors beat the Sydney Roosters on Sunday afternoon.
