Smith and Hornby out of league’s All Stars

Club captains Cameron Smith and Ben Hornby have been ruled out of the NRL All Stars team with injury.

Melbourne’s Smith (shoulder) and St George Illawarra’s Hornby (thigh strain) suffered injuries in training this week and will miss the clash with the Indigenous All Stars on February 4 at Gold Coast’s Skilled Park.

Smith is now not expected to feature in the Storm’s pre-season trials while Hornby will undergo further scans in the coming days to assess the extent of the injury.

“Cameron suffered deep bruising to his shoulder during a contact session earlier this week,” said Storm football manager Frank Ponissi.

“He aggravated that same injury during training today, therefore unfortunately ruling him out of the upcoming All Stars match.

“The injury is likely to prevent Cameron from playing in the trials, however we don’t anticipate any long-term issues that will prevent him from starting the season.”

Kiwi international utility Nathan Fien will replace his Dragons team-mate on the interchange bench after Hornby was named as a surprise coach’s pick last Thursday, while Smith was an automatic selection as an Australian team representative.

A replacement has yet to be named for Smith.

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