Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan admits he rolled the dice in letting an injured Todd Carney take to the field against Canberra in Sunday’s NRL elimination final loss.
But he’s refused to pin their defeat on the difficult decision while adding that skipper Paul Gallen’s preparations have been severely hampered.
“It was (touch-and-go with Carney),” Flanagan revealed after the 34-16 hammering at Canberra Stadium.
“And no one knows but Gal hasn’t trained one session since Origin.
“Now Todd’s been injured and you can toss them all out as excuses, but we put our best team out there today and we got beat.”
Cronulla exited the finals race with a whimper after being soundly beaten by a high-flying Raiders outfit.
Flanagan might now be ruing the worth of naming Carney for the sudden-death match, with the playmaker set for a lengthy stint in rehabilitation.
He injured his Achilles against North Queensland last week and despite the club’s insistence pre-match, was still not 100 per cent heading into the Raiders game.
He failed to make it all the way through the warm-up, and despite two needles, hit the deck shortly after halftime following an awkward step off his right leg.
“It felt like someone shot me,” Carney told Fox Sports.
“Hopefully it’s not too bad.
“I just have to see how it goes and get some scans tomorrow.”