There are early signs that the South Sydney Rabbitohs' injury curse, which derailed 2025, has returned, with two key players to miss Saturday evening's game against the Wests Tigers in Gosford.

Rabbitohs' head coach Wayne Bennett confirmed after the club's captain's run on Friday afternoon that Campbell Graham (shoulder) and Euan Aitken (leg) will both miss the contest after they missed the final training session ahead of the game.

Graham hasn't missed a minute of the Rabbitohs' season so far after only playing 11 games last year, but now has a shoulder injury. Bennett said Graham simply hasn't recovered well enough for this match, but didn't provide any other details.

"He has a shoulder problem, so he won't play tomorrow," Bennett said of his winger.

"He just hasn't recovered well enough, so he isn't fit enough.

"He should be right after the bye."

South Sydney have the bye in Round 4 before lining up for their now traditional Good Friday clash against the high-flying Canterbury Bulldogs in Round 5 at Homebush on April 3.

Bennett also revealed Aitken has been battling a cork.

"He has a pretty severe cork and just can't run properly at the moment," Bennett added on Aitken.

Aitken was originally named on the bench for the match and will likely be replaced by Thomas Fletcher or Liam Le Blanc, who have both been named amongst the reserves.

On the wing, Bennett confirmed Moala Graham-Taufa, who was originally named in jersey 19, will make his NRL debut.

"More than a potential," the coach said when pressed on whether he would debut.

"We recruited him from the Warriors. We were short of outside backs and he has been great to work with. They [the Warriors] have done a great job with him. He is very skilled and I'm very confident in what he can bring.

"He was injured to start the season, played last week for the first time."

That will likely bring Latrell Siegwalt onto the six-man bench for the clash with the Tigers, who had the bye in the opening round of the season before racking up 44 points against the North Queensland Cowboys at Leichhardt last Saturday in their first clash of the campaign.

South Sydney kicked things off with a high-scoring win over the Dolphins in Brisbane, but failed to follow that up against arch rivals the Sydney Roosters last weekend, despite celebrating Alex Johnston becoming the game's greatest ever try-scorer.

Kick-off in Gosford is scheduled for 7:35pm (AEDT) on Saturday evening.