Cronulla’s Todd Carney and Beau Ryan have been ruled out of Monday’s clash with Gold Coast at Remondis Stadium after failing fitness tests.
Interim coach Peter Sharp confirmed on Sunday that Carney’s hamstring issue had not cleared up sufficiently to risk him so early in the season and Ryan is still suffering the affects of a neck problem.
“With Todd it’s just a week too soon,” Sharp told AAP.
“We could play him and then risk losing him for six weeks, but that would be madness. The same goes for Beau.”
The absence of Carney means the Sharks are without their two starting halves with Jeff Robson still sidelined after breaking his cheekbone in a trial.
Sharp confirmed Wade Graham will move to five-eighth with former Canterbury halfback Daniel Holdsworth playing his first NRL game since 2009 having spent five years in Super League with Salford and Hull.
Ricky Leutele will replace Ryan on the wing after overcoming a foot injury that has kept him on the sidelines since round three of last season.
“Ricky is a good kid who’s had some bad luck with injuries and is champing at the bit to play,” Sharp said.
“Wade has played in the halves before and Daniel Holdsworth is an experienced head.”
It will be a case of deja vu at Remondis Stadium for the season opener with the future of suspended coach Shane Flanagan very much the backdrop to the game.
Flanagan is set to appeal a 12-month ban by the NRL following a probe into the club’s supplements program during the 2011 season.
NRL chief Dave Smith announced last Wednesday that a first appeal by Flanagan against the term had been rejected, with the Sharks mentor now ready to go to the Supreme Court in a bid to clear his name.
Twelve months ago Flanagan was absent from the coach’s box for the round one visit of the Titans having been stood down by the club following an investigation by former deputy chair of ASADA Trish Kavanagh.
Flanagan was reinstated by the club for the season opener, but like this year it’s the veteran former Manly and Hull coach Sharp who will look after the team.
“It’s all water off a duck’s back for these blokes, we just all want to stop talking and playing some footy,” he said.
There was speculation promising hooker Michael Lichaa was in line for his first grade debut, but Sharp resisted the temptation to field him and he played in the Sharks’ NSW Cup win over Canterbury on Saturday.
“He’s a good young player, but this is a game for incumbents,” he said.
“John Morris and Isaac De Gois haven’t let us down. Michael will have to bide his time and keep knocking on the door.”
