Cronulla Sharks head coach Craig Fitzgibbon has confirmed dummy half and New South Wales State of Origin debutant Blayke Brailey has suffered a suspected broken arm.

The club will await scans, but the hope is that he has suffered a clean break, without any further damage.

Some estimates suggest Brailey could only miss a month of football if that is the case, while other damage would see the dummy half, who had a streak of 139 straight games snapped by a HIA leading up to his State of Origin debut, out for longer.

"We'll scan that tomorrow, but (a broken arm) is what it's looking like. Hopefully it's clean - if it is fractured - it's clean and not displaced, so that would minimise the time but yeah, that's what it's looking like," the head coach said during his post-match press conference.

"I'm still trying to work out whether we should have played him or not, but he was delivering too. He was playing such a good game tonight. He's such a player.

"But he's not going to be hurt forever."

A devastated Brailey refused to be interviewed on camera, but confirmed to Fox Sports during their coverage of the game that a broken arm was the speculated injury.

The dummy half will likely be out of contention for State of Origin 2 in the best-case scenario, and could be replaced by either Wests Tigers' dummy half Apisai Koroisau, or New Zealand Warriors' counterpart Wayde Egan on the bench.

At Cronulla, Hohepa Puru, who played when Brailey was out with a concussion, will likely start over the coming weeks.

The Sharks clash with the St George Illawarra Dragons, New Zealand Warriors and Sydney Roosters over the next three weeks, before a bye. Brailey could well target the Round 18 road trip to play the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.

One player who should be back before then is halfback Nicho Hynes.

It was reported that he would only miss a single week, but speaking in his press conference, Fitzgibbon said he wasn't going to rush the star back at this stage of the season.

That could buy Niwhai Puru more time in the NRL side in a halves combination alongside Braydon Trindall, who was undoubtedly the best player on the park in the club's narrow win over the Manly Sea Eagles, who mounted a dramatic second half comeback.

KL Iro is the other key man out for the Sharks, being a late withdrawal for Friday's clash with a knee laceration, but it's tipped he will be back for the local derby at home against the Dragons next weekend.