Sheens plays down Kangaroos injury fears

Tim Sheens says the walking wounded from his Kangaroos side will not be in any danger of missing the start of next season after edging out New Zealand 18-10 in a bruising Test encounter on Saturday.

Ryan Hoffman, Greg Inglis, Brett Morris and Nate Myles were all struggling with injuries after the game, but coach Sheens said none of the problems were serious enough to concern their clubs.

Melbourne’s Hoffman limped off with ankle ligament damage and Inglis and Morris both required lengthy treatment for knee injuries in the second half.

“You don’t play in a game like that and expect to come away without a few bumps and bruises,” Sheens said.

“But there’s nothing too serious that will require surgery.

“I didn’t put Hoff back on as he was struggling to run and I didn’t want to ruin him. But everyone carried that little bit extra to win the game.”

Sheens said Myles was left on the bench for almost an hour due to a sternum injury that had been troubling the back-rower this week.

The Gold Coast star has enjoyed a superb year, winning the Wally Lewis Medal for his performances for Queensland in State of Origin, and had been named in the starting line up at Dairy Farmers Stadium, only for Sheens to replace him with Tony Williams.

Myles finally entered the fray with just over 20 minutes remaining, and helped set up Darius Boyd’s match-clinching try with a clever offload.

“Nate had a bit of a sternum issue which he has carried since the back end of the season,” Sheens said.

“He had a bit of problem with it during the week so I decided to make a change and ease him in later.

“I did want to put him on in the first half, but for whatever reason it never happened. But he did a good job when he came on.”

Robbie Farah also sat patiently on the bench for 58 minutes, and Sheens said the introduction of the Wests Tigers hooker was a key reason why his side outlasted the Kiwis in the hot and humid conditions in Townsville.

“Cam (Smith) and Robbie took it up through the middle and it worked well,” he said.

“We knew they were going to be tired, they’d ran out of interchanges and having two dummy halves worked well.”

Stay up to date with the latest sports news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest sporting news!