Parramatta coach Brad Arthur has implored star playmaker Corey Norman to fight through the pain for at least one more week as the Eels look to breathe life into their NRL season.
Norman on Saturday overcame a foot injury to spearhead the last-place Eels to a six-point win over North Queensland, snapping their five-game losing streak.
Norman was considered just a 30 per cent chance of taking the field in Darwin, but was key to their breakthrough victory and will again be relied upon in next week’s match against South Sydney.
The NRL then pauses for a week through the representative round.
“He was blowing early there tonight because he hasn’t been able to get on the training paddock much with that foot injury,” Arthur said of Norman.
“He’s worked extremely hard to make sure he can get on the field. It’d be the same again this week.
“We probably won’t be able to get a lot of training out of him but we’re going into a bye so he just needs to get on the field, give us another 80 minutes and then we can rest him up a bit.”
Norman’s effort follows a controversial week where he was also fined $20,000 by the club for drinking on a night out while injured.
Arthur insisted the team had put the incident behind them.
“We’ve moved on from there. He showed in his performance tonight how important it is to him to play for his teammates,” Arthur said.
Norman wasn’t the only player under pressure to deliver for the struggling Eels, with centre Jarryd Hayne celebrating his comeback from his nagging hamstring injury with two tries.
However, his strong return was blemished by a missed tackle that conceded a late try.
“I’m sure he’d be disappointed in his effort at the end there but he scored two nice tries and got us on the front foot early and gave us that little bit of confidence,” Arthur said.
“We don’t need him to have 30-40 involvements but when he is involved, we need it to be quality.”