THE rugby league world held its breath as Manly superstar Tom Trbojevic suffered a recurrence of his cursed hamstring injuries in the win over North Queensland.
The Australia international looked the the heavens and was immediately comforted by team-mates as he suffered the injury 12 minutes into the opening match of the NRL’s round seven at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
Trbojevic, 29, has suffered five hamstring injuries during his career. He seemed to do so again in an otherwise innocuous trackle.
“He’s obviously not looking too good at the moment,” said the Sea Eagles’ caretaker coach, Kieran Foran.
“But we’ll wait until we get a scan on Monday to assess the severity of it.”
Brother Jake was also briefly forced off with his second head knick in as many matches as caretaker coach Kieran Foran remained undefeated after three games with the maroon clipboard.
“The last couple of weeks the big headgear hasn’t protected two little bits of the head,” said Jake with a smile.
In the second half, Tom was showered, changed and sitting in a box high in the grandstand. Tolutau Koula, who took Tom Trbojevic’s place when he came off, will be his first choice replacement in the weeks ahead, Foran said.
Winger Lehi Hopoate could have had a hat-trick but passed the ball in the in-goal for hooker Brandon Wakeham to grab one in the first half.
Cowboys coach Todd Payten described it as “a pretty flat performance”, pointing to a 42 percent completion rate in the first half.
“We got what we deserved,” he said, “the score could have been bigger.”
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MANLY 38 (Hopoate 2 B Trbojevic Wakeham Paseka Brooks tries Fogarty 7 goals) beat NORTH QUEENSLAND 6 (Hess try Clifford goal) at Queensland Country Bank Stadium
Teams:
NQ: Scott Drinkwater; Braidon Burns, Jaxson Purdue, Tom Chester, Zac Laybutt; Jake Clifford, Tiom Dearden; Coen Hess, Soni Luke, Jason Taumalolo, Heilum Luki, Kai O’Donnell, Rueben Cotter. Res: Sam McIntyre, Griffin Neame, Tom Mikaele, Matthew Lodge.
MANLY: Tom Trbojevic (c); Jason Saab, Tolutau Koula, Ruebe Garrick, Lehi Hopoate; Luke Brooks, Jamal Fogarty; Taniela Paseka, Brandon Wakeham, Kobe Hetherington, Haumole Olakau’atu, Ben Trbojevic, Jake Trbojevic. Res: Jake Simpkin, Corey Waddell, Siosuia Taukeiaho, Clayton Faulalo.
Referee: Gerard Sutton.