The South Sydney Rabbitohs have confirmed the season is over for prop Tevita Tatola as he heads in for surgery on a shoulder dislocation.
Tatola suffered the shoulder injury on Saturday evening in a tight loss to the Cronulla Sharks.
The Rabbitohs confirmed he will 'arthroscopic labral repair in an effort to fix the injury, with Tatola expected to be back to full fitness shortly after the start of pre-season given the standard three-month recovery window which has been used for injuries of this type previously.
The Rabbitohs have a long list of players out for the year, with a grand total of 13 players currently listed as available according to the club.
Tatola's injury is joined by those to Gerome Burns, Campbell Graham, Keaon Koloamatangi, Benajmin Lovett, Latrell Mitchell, Max McCarthy, Davvy Moale, Cameron Murray, Mikaele Ravalawa, Brandon Smith, Jayden Sullivan and Cody Walker.
Some of those players will return prior to the end of the campaign, but the Rabbitohs are scraping the bottom of the barrel to put a team on the field each week.
It has been something of a difficult season for Tatola who has played 18 games, but was dropped at one point and has played a number of games off the interchange bench.
His form has been betterin the second half of the year, but he still averages under 100 metres per game.
A forward formerly in the State of Origin discussion, his career was derailed by a previous injury that almost forced him into early retirement.
The prop is 28 years of age though and will aim to get back to his best at South Sydney next year in a side who will be hoping for far better luck on the injury front.
