Superstar South Sydney centre Greg Inglis expects to miss the start of the NRL season with the ankle injury he suffered in Saturday night’s NRL All Stars match.
Inglis, who flew back into Sydney with Rabbitohs chief executive Shane Richardson on Sunday to have scans on his left ankle, has been warned to expect a four to six week stint on the sidelines.
The 25-year-old, who suffered the injury when scoring a try late in the 36-28 loss to the NRL All Stars, and club coach Michael Maguire will learn the full extent of the injury when the scan results come in on Monday but he is long odds to play in the Rabbitohs’ season-opener against Sydney Roosters on March 5.
“It is frustrating. It’s probably the first pre-season I’ve had for a while,” Inglis told Channel Nine.
Inglis twisted the ankle as he scored a try late in the match, and worryingly it is the same ankle which kept him sidelined for the back end of last season.
“(After scoring the try) I realised that something serious had happened,” Inglis said.
“It looked like a sniper just hit me from the grandstand.”
But the Rabbitohs weren’t the only team counting the cost of the first week of trials, with Warriors prop Jacob Lillyman and gun Brisbane youngster Jordan Kahu facing lengthy stints on the sideline.
Lillyman suffered a torn bicep in the Warriors 26-10 trial victory over last year’s wooden spooners Gold Coast on Saturday, and is expected to miss three months of the season.
Lillyman is due to have surgery after club doctor John Mayhew confirmed the Queensland Origin prop had torn his right bicep off the tendon at the elbow.
“It’s probable he’ll have surgery this week,” Mayhew said.
“With this type of injury, he faces three months on the sideline.”
The highly-rated Kahu, in his first match back from a reconstruction on his right knee suffered last season, looks likely to miss another year of football after suffering a suspected anterior cruciate injury in the same knee.
North Queensland received good news, with co-captain Johnathan Thurston and centre Brent Tate being declared fit for round one.
Tate, who was restricted to just nine games for the Cowboys in 2011 after returning from a knee injury, feared the worst when he came off at halftime in the All Stars clash, while Thurston also left the field late in the game.
But the pair pulled up well on Sunday morning having simply suffered corks that will not put them in doubt for their season opener against Gold Coast.
Defending premiers Manly, Cronulla, Canterbury and St George Illawarra all came through without any major concerns.
After Sea Eagles co-captain Jason King (pectoral injury) finished the 38-6 trial loss to the Sharks confidently, coach Geoff Toovey is expected to take a full-strength squad to England for the World Club Challenge trial next fortnight.
“I’d like to be going (into the World Club Challenge) in better form, but we can fix that,” Toovey said after the match.
“We’ve taken something out of it, and we’re fortunate to get through without any dramas.”
