NRL injury clouds gather over Storm

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy is mulling yet another reshuffle of his Storm line-up, with injury doubts over Marika Koroibete and Young Tonumaipea heading into Sunday’s NRL match against Gold Coast.

Koroibete (ankle) and Tonumaipea (knee) were both injured in Monday’s 42-0 thrashing of the Warriors and will struggle to take their places against the Titans.

It continues a shocking run of injury misfortune for the Storm’s backs, with Billy Slater, Will Chambers, Jeremy Hawkins and Curtis Scott already sidelined.

“They’re getting really low,” Bellamy said on Thursday of his playing stocks.

“At the moment, we haven’t got a fit centre in the joint.

“But we’ve always had the mentality that if someone misses out, then someone else gets a chance. We’ll just have to move a couple of players away from their regular positions into the centres and see how we go with that.

“But (Koroibete and Tonumaipea) are still having treatment and there’s a little bit of testing to be done … we’ll see what happens.”

In better news for the Storm, Bellamy said skipper Cameron Smith had escaped injury despite appearing proppy following a clash during Monday’s win.

The coach has praised the resilience of his squad, who sit third on the NRL ladder with six wins, despite their ongoing injury issues.

The Titans dropped to 10th on the back of their golden-point loss to Canterbury, but Bellamy was expecting a stern challenge when the Storm travelled to the Gold Coast.

“No one gave them much hope at the start of the year but they’ve been tremendous with their effort and their ability to hang in games,” he said.

“Some games, they look like they’ve been out on their feet but they just keep coming back.

“They certainly haven’t been out of any game they’ve played in and the effort that they’ve put in when they’ve been behind has been tremendous.

“We know that’s not going to change this week … we’re expecting a really tough game.”

Bellamy will climb to ninth on the all-time list on Sunday when he coaches his 350th NRL game.

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