Melbourne might have lost exciting winger Matt Duffie for the remainder of the NRL season after he re-injured his shoulder.

Making a comeback from a dislocated left shoulder, Duffie played in the NSW Cup on Saturday after missing the Storm’s one-point win over Brisbane.

He initially suffered the injury against North Queensland just over a month ago.

“Matt played in our feeder club on the weekend just to test his shoulder,” said Storm football manager Frank Ponissi.

“He’s been getting rehab and we needed to see how he went and, unfortunately, he didn’t pull up great.”

Duffie had hoped to postpone surgery until the end of the season but Ponissi said it now seemed more likely he would miss the finals and go under the knife.

The 22-year-old also had surgery on the same shoulder at the end of last season that made him unavailable for Four Nations selection.