St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor is confident Josh Dugan’s troublesome left ankle is a problem the fullback can manage throughout the NRL season.
Dugan was comfortably the best player on the field at Wollongong’s WIN Stadium on Saturday night in the dour 12-4 success over Manly.
The victory moved the Dragons to 2-2 for the season after a slow start to the campaign that saw the joint venture struggle in their defeats by Melbourne and Wests Tigers.
McGregor’s side have struggled in attack all season but NSW star Dugan was their biggest threat going forward setting up his side’s only try scored by Jason Nightingale.
But he gave his team a scare when he went down in the second half after aggravating the left ankle he injured in the Charity Shield against South Sydney in February before limping his way through the closing stages of the game.
“He did hurt his ankle again tonight but he is managing through it at the moment and he will continue to do that because he puts the team first and that is important,” McGregor said.
“He is a big-name player and you need them out there every week to be successful as a team and he has put himself on the field, so he has got to perform.
“He came back early from an injury, so when you come back early you have got to look after blokes the first couple of weeks when they do play and he is there now with some ice but he is fine to play.”
The Dragons had failed to score in the opening 20 minutes of their previous three games and McGregor admitted that statistic played a part in the decision to kick a penalty from just in front of the posts after just four minutes.
Nightingale’s try was the only time the Dragons crossed the line despite some dominating the opening stanza to open up a 10-0 lead.
McGregor conceded work is still required to get his side firing but said he was pleased with the defensive effort.
“It’s always nice to get points on the board early,” he said.
“It’s where we’re at the moment … our defence is pretty strong, but for us it’s about building pressure.
“It’s nice to get back to 50-50 but we have a big challenge against Newcastle next week.”
