Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards is in doubt for the NRL elimination final against Manly as he races the clock to recover from a knee injury.
Edwards failed to train on Tuesday with his Panthers teammates because of a medial ligament strain which ruled him out of the weekend loss to the Sea Eagles.
Edwards is touch and go to take on the Eagles again, compounding the Panthers’ lack of experience in their spine after skipper Matt Moylan’s decision to take leave because of personal issues.
“I don’t know about (Edwards) – it’s touch and go I think,” teammate Reagan Campbell-Gillard said.
“He’s doing everything he could possibly do to get himself right. It’s only a short week.”
Tyrone May will again fill in at five-eighth, meaning the Panthers will run out a halves pairing with just 46 games’ experience.
May (seven games) and Nathan Cleary (39) have around a quarter of the experience of Manly playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans (169).
As well, Dean Whare, who is expected to fill in at fullback if Edwards does not recover in time, has made just 13 appearances in the No.1 jersey.
Before last week, he hadn’t played at fullback since round six in 2013 while at Manly.
“You can say it’s inexperience or lack of game time but we’ve got people here who are capable of filling the role,” Panthers winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak said.
“That’s what we’ve done all year. Those guys will do a tremendous job and do the jersey proud. It just shows the depth we have here at the club.”
The Panthers were bashed and bruised after their final-round loss to Manly with Tim Browne, Trent Merrin and Waqa Blake also failing to train or receiving an early mark on Tuesday. However, all are expected to play.