Sydney Roosters face being without Latrell Mitchell for their NRL preliminary final after the star centre was charged with a dangerous contact charge on Sunday.
Mitchell was hit with a grade one charge for a crusher tackle on Cronulla centre Josh Dugan in the second half of the Roosters’ qualifying finals win.
The grade one charge carries a 100-point base penalty, which would normally allow Mitchell to escape suspension with an early guilty plea.
However he has been made to pay by the match review committee for a previous incident.
The NSW State of Origin centre has 75 carryover points after pleading guilty to a cannonball tackle on Parramatta captain Clint Gutherson in the final game of the regular season.
It means he will have to successfully contest the charge at the NRL judiciary to play in their final-four clash against either South Sydney or the winner of Brisbane and St George Illawarra.
The Roosters have until midday on Monday to decide whether to fight the findings.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson was adamant Mitchell would have no case to answer and suggested Dugan had feigned injury in the tackle in an attempt to draw a penalty.
When asked post-game if he had concerns for Mitchell over the tackle, Robinson said: “Not really. You can’t look at the actions of the player on that. If they’re going to go off, then fine.
“You can play for penalties at different times as well. That’s up to someone else.”
His possible suspension would be a huge blow for a Roosters side that will still be missing firebrand Dylan Napa, who has one more match to serve for a separate ugly tackle.
The 21-year-old Mitchell is second in the league in pointscoring with 228 points, while he also has tallied 18 line breaks, 96 tackle busts, and 20 offloads.
Veteran Mitchell Aubusson is likely to shift into the centres should Mitchell be unavailable.
In some good news for the Roosters, scans confirmed prop Sio Siua Taukeiaho only suffered an ankle sprain and should be able to recover in time for their grand final qualifier.
Taukeiaho is likely to deputise as goalkicker should Mitchell be rubbed out.
