Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan has backed Paul Gallen to overcome any knee injury he is diagnosed with this weekend as he looks to extend his career towards his 37th birthday.

Gallen is one of the Sharks’ biggest injury concerns out of Friday night’s horror 40-20 loss to St George Illawarra, with some fears Andrew Fifita may also have torn his anterior cruciate ligament.

Fellow senior forwards Wade Graham (hamstring) and Luke Lewis (knee) will join them for scans on Saturday, but their injuries are not considered as serious.

Flanagan has no doubts over his captain’s ability to overcome any injury at age 36, after Gallen was questioned whether he feared the worst when he went down.

“In 2016 we played the Cowboys (in North Queensland in round one) and Gal came off and thought he did his ACL and thought he’d never play again,” Flanagan said.

“He won the comp and last year was Dally M lock of the year. So he will be right. He’ll bounce back.”

Fifita’s injury came after he stepped into an innocuous tackle but appeared in immediate pain.

He limped from the field just before halftime and later hobbled back to Cronulla’s bench on crutches and with a brace on his left knee.

It is understood Fifita was hopeful after the match that the pain hadn’t amounted to a serious season-destroying injury, but he faces an anxious wait regardless.

Fifita was damaging in the first half for the Sharks, setting up one try and busting through four tackles, but he also gifted the Dragons one of four penalty goals not long before his injury.

“He did some good things and he was part of the problem at the start of the game giving some discipline penalties away at the start,” Flanagan said.

“He’s a big hard player to tackle and he’s a quality player. But they’ve all got to toe the line and he’s one of them as well. Disappointing for me, not happy.”