Matai, Lyon, DCE sidelined for Manly

Manly’s season from hell has reached new lows with Daly-Cherry Evans, Jamie Lyon and Steve Matai set for stints on the sidelines and the club’s training base flooded on Monday.

Matai has been ruled out indefinitely with a neck injury which kept him from taking the field in the side’s 30-18 NRL defeat against Canberra on Sunday.

In that game, their fourth straight defeat, Cherry-Evans suffered an ankle injury which will keep him out for a month while Lyon suffered the same problem and will miss the next fortnight.

The club is also nervously awaiting scans on Brenton Lawrence who suffered a pectoral injury in the nation’s capital and could be out for the rest of the year.

If he is confirmed as having ruptured his pectoral muscle, it could spell the end of his season, with the injury usually taking around three months to heal.

Lawrence has been hampered by a horror back injury over the last two years which has limited his time on the park.

It’s a cruel blow for the Sea Eagles who are under a mountain of pressure after the emergence of match-fixing allegations on the back of four straight losses, which have seen them slump to 13th on the NRL ladder.

To make matters worse, its North Narrabeen training facility has flooded, an inconvenience which threatens to disrupt their preparations for Sunday’s emotion-charged clash with Penrith.

The Sydney Academy of Sport, which houses the NRL side as well as the rugby union Aussie Sevens teams, went under water after a weekend of torrential rain.

On Monday the facility was still flooded after nearby Narrabeen Lake burst its banks.

A photo from the Aussie Sevens twitter account showed the extent of the damage with the entire facility including the fields under water.

The Sea Eagles are expecting their parochial fans to deliver a bumper turnout at Brookvale on Sunday as they enter the clash with a backs-against-the-wall mentality.

A Manly spokesperson on Monday said it was unclear when they would be allowed back at their training base and may have to take their field sessions to Brookvale Oval this week.

The club’s administration facilities escaped damage and it was just a matter of when they would be allowed back on the fields.

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