Luckless Manly are resigned to being without back-rower Tom Symonds for the opening rounds of the NRL, after his injured his elbow in the Saturday’s 36-6 trial loss to the Sydney Roosters.
The Sea Eagles 2014 premiership campaign was hobbled by injuries and their start to this season could suffer the same fate.
Symonds is highly unlikely to be fit for their premiership opener against Parramatta on March 6, and could miss the first month of games.
He could be one of a number of Sea Eagles to sit out the grudge match with an Eels side including two-time Manly premiership winner Anthony Watmough.
Captain Jamie Lyon (knee), Steve Matai (shoulder), Brenton Lawrence (knee), and Jamie Buhrer (knee) are all only 50/50 chances to be there.
Lyon hurt his knee in the loss to the Roosters, with the others still recovering from off season surgery.
Eels prop Darcy Lussick could also be rubbed out of their NRL start, after being put on report for a high tackle on Matt Moylan in Parramatta’s 30-22 win over Penrith.
Moylan suffered a hamstring strain, but is expected to be right for the Panthers’ opener against Canterbury.
Canterbury prop David Klemmer is also in the sights of the NRL match review panel after being sinbinned following following some push and shove in the Bulldogs 32-30 loss to the Storm in Melbourne.
Canberra skipper Jarrod Croker suffered a head knock in the Raiders 26-4 loss to Newcastle at Seiffert Oval.
But he is expected to be OK for Canberra’s first NRL game of the year against the Sharks.
Blake Ferguson left the field late in the Roosters’ win with an ankle complaint but is likely to be on deck when the tricolours travel to Townsville to meet North Queensland to kick off their season.
In some good news for Manly, Matt Ballin, who missed the end of last season with a broken leg, got through the loss to the Roosters at Central Coast Stadium unscathed.
“He is raring to go for the season,” Sea Eagles coach Geoff Toovey said.
“He is absolutely filthy his streak of a thousand successive games was broken and he can’t get wait to get out there when the season starts.”
Ballin set the Manly record of 182 successive first grade games before succumbing to the injury last year.
The hooker was joined on the sidelines at the end of 2014 by Buhrer and Glenn Stewart
In the weekend’s other trial, the Cowboys beat Gold Coast 30-10 in Cairns with North Queensland’s Johnathan Thurston starring in his first hit out in club colours this year.
Australian prop Matt Scott come through his return match for the Cowboys unscathed after off-season shoulder surgery.
