South Sydney captain Greg Inglis will have knee surgery on Monday, but he is expected to recover in time to be part of the Rabbitohs’ finals campaign.
Inglis hurt his knee in South Sydney’s loss to Canterbury last week and it is a recurrence of an on-going problem for the Queensland and Australian star.
Scans cleared the Souths fullback of serious damage and there had been speculation he would play in Thursday night’s clash against Brisbane.
“He still had a little bit of discomfort there on Sunday which was a bit of a concern,” Souths’ high performance manager Troy Thomson told the Rabbitohs’ website.
“We got him off to see the surgeon this morning and unfortunately it looks like there is a loose piece of cartilage floating around in the knee which really explains his symptoms.”
While the minor operation will rule Inglis out of the NRL blockbuster with Brisbane this week, Souths are hoping he will be fit to play against the Sydney Roosters in the final game of the home-and-away season.
“We’ve opted to go in there, get (the knee) cleaned out as quickly as we can and then rehab him and hopefully we’ll get him back for the Roosters game,” Thomson said.
Inglis’ absence against the Broncos will be a blow as they try to keep their place in the top four.
Five-eighth Luke Keary admitted Souths would desperately miss Inglis.
“He’s a big part of this side and he’s our captain,” Keary said.
“He’s led us around all year and he’s played really good footy all year so he’s obviously important.”
Alex Johnston is expected to move to fullback, having filled in there during Inglis’ absence earlier this season.
Keary and hooker Issac Luke are to return from suspension in what has been an inconsistent season for the defending premiers.
After blowing North Queensland off the park in Townsville, Souths were badly out-muscled by the Bulldogs on Friday.
“That’s the million dollar question,” Keary said of his side’s up-and-down form.
“We probably asked ourselves that over the last couple of months and we haven’t come up with the right answer yet.
“We’ll do it again this week and we’ll see if we can turn it around.”
Ginger Meggs
Guest
Alex Johnston is a brilliant and slippery young winger but his efforts at fullback this year have been error prone and ineffective. He has enjoyed much success as a fullback throughout his junior club and representative career but his many spectacular kick returns at this level were in the main effected by his speed and ability to gallop across field, outrun the defenders to straighten up near the sideline and carry on down the field, often untouched, and usually not in touch with his own backline. This does not work in the NRL as the kick followers are much better organised and usually include some quicks. Johnston is not an aggressive enough runner to run the football out of the jams encountered in the top league. He may develop the skills and toughness over time to make the grade but at the moment he is not there. This means that Souths are not only down a superb player when Inglis is out but they are replacing him with a player who is not up to it. And if not Johnston who? No one. They have no one in the U20's or North Sydney who would be any more effective than Johnston.
mark howard
Guest
If only south's would start the match with both Burgess brothers , someone tell Maguire !