Sam Burgess facing up to three-game ban

Sam Burgess is facing at least another two weeks on the sideline after the South Sydney enforcer was charged for his high hit on Canberra’s Aidan Sezer.

In his first game back from a two-week suspension, Burgess was charged with a grade-two careless high tackle in Saturday’s 42-22 rout of the Raiders on the Central Coast.

Burgess will miss games against Brisbane and Newcastle if he accepts the charge, but will miss an additional clash with St George Illawarra if he takes it to the judiciary and is found guilty.

If he does fight it, it will be Burgess’s second visit to the panel this month, after a one-game ban for contact on Canterbury’s Josh Morris became a two-week suspension when he failed to overturn that charge on April 3.

The hit on Sezer’s chin sparked an all-in melee on Saturday.

The Raiders were miffed after their skipper Jarrod Croker was sin-binned for holding back Angus Crichton while Burgess stayed on the field.

Croker subsequently compared Burgess’s shot to an incident for which teammate Sia Soliola was suspended for collaring Billy Slater last year.

“It wasn’t pretty was it,” Croker said.

“Sia Soliola got six weeks for something like that last year.

“I’m not here to talk about how Sam Burgess plays the game. I’m worried about the result.

“He plays the game hard and he slipped up on that one. It was a bad one. It was pretty ordinary.”

Burgess declined to talk to waiting media after the game but told Fox Sports: “I don’t think there was anything in it.”

Meanwhile his brother George has been sanctioned with a high shot on Luke Bateman, although he can accept a $1500 fine given it is only a grade-one charge.

Canberra back-rower Elliot Whitehead can also escape suspension for his dangerous contact on Tom Burgess with an early guilty plea in the only other charge stemming from the match.

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