Canterbury have lost a second key player to ankle syndesmosis in as many weeks with State of Origin prop Dylan Napa ruled out for up to six matches.
Scans revealed Napa suffered a grade two syndesmosis to his right ankle during Sunday’s narrow NRL loss to Melbourne.
It is the same injury that ruled out five-eighth Kieran Foran for three months last week, leaving the Bulldogs without two of their best players.
Napa tried to play on after hurting the joint in the opening set against the Storm, before eventually succumbing to the pain after 16 minutes.
“I was thinking about Kieran and how he played the whole game so I was feeling like a bit of a cat going off,” Napa said after the game on Sunday.
“But I was becoming a liability in defence and I could hear the Storm saying, ‘Get at Napa’, and I didn’t want to let the team down.”
The loss of the big prop will likely mean a recall for Danny Fualalo or Jesse Sue for Sunday’s round-five match against St George
Illawarra.
Both players were axed after the team’s disastrous 0-2 start to the season.
The Bulldogs claimed their opening win against the Wests Tigers the following week before going down bravely against the Storm on Sunday.
Should Napa require the full six weeks to recover, he will return for the club’s round 10 clash against Gold Coast.
Napa will then have one more game the following week, against Melbourne, to push his case for Queensland selection for game one of the 2019 State of Origin series.
He played in the opening two Origin games last year before being ruled out for the third match due to a knee injury.
The Barry
Roar Guru
If it wasn’t for bad luck we’d have no luck at all...
Paul
Roar Guru
TB, your boys can't buy any good luck at the moment. Who'd want to be a coach?
The Barry
Roar Guru
Terrible luck for the Dogs losing two of their most experienced and probably best players for extended periods. They were able to dig deep without them on the weekend. Hopefully they look a bit further afield than Sue and Fualalo who were dire in the opening two rounds. Maybe RFM or Renouf To’omaga...?
mach4
Roar Rookie
Disappointed in Cam Smith's comments after the Bulldogs clash, it was not a poor game from the Storm it was a lesson for all teams playing them in the future. Do not play the Bellamy and Smith game, play your own. The Storm plays the mind games and wants all others to play to their strengths. The Bulldogs changed the Storm focus, they took it to them, their way, a young team with some strong leaders showed, mistakes were made by the young Dogs but they showed the presence of a good coach developing a culture, a way forward. So sorry to hear the referees boss admit to the mistake on full time that the Dogs kicked was put in the wrong spot. 2 metres difference. Well done boys gallant in defeat.