Sydney Roosters fans are anxiously awaiting an update on Luke Keary after the 2019 Clive Churchill Medallist ended up in hospital after Thursday night’s NRL loss to Melbourne.
It’s understood Keary was discharged on Friday morning amid fears the star playmaker suffered a ruptured spleen in the bruising 24-6 defeat at the SCG.
Their top-four position already under siege, the Roosters’ premiership defence will be hanging in the balance should they lose Keary for an extended period.
Compounding their woes, the Roosters also also sweating on injury reports on veteran utility Mitch Aubusson and young halfback Lachlan Lam.
Aubusson has a suspected broken arm, while Lam suffered a high ankle sprain.
The trio join a crowded casualty ward that also contains co-captain Boyd Cordner, Brett Morris, Victor Radley, Daniel Tupou, Angus Crichton and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
Coach Trent Robinson admits having 10 first-grade regulars sidelined is easily the biggest injury crisis he’s ever dealt with but refused to blame it for Thursday night’s heavy home defeat.
“We were poor,” Robinson said.
But even Storm coach Craig Bellamy admitted the Roosters were decimated, likening the match to a M*A*S*H episode after the Storm also lost Jahrome Hughes (groin) and winger Suliasi Vunivalu (broken jaw).
Bellamy said some of the rule changes introduced this year, which Robinson claimed had increased the speed of games by up to 15 per cent, needed to be reconsidered for player safety at the end of the season.
“We decided we wanted some fatigue in the game but I’m not quite sure whether there’s too much fatigue at the moment with the amount of teams that have got a lot of injuries, and I mean a lot,” Bellamy said.
“You look at the Roosters’ list, and we’ve probably got two of our most influential players out (in Cameron Smith and Cameron Munster).
“It’s not just about fatigue and soft tissue injuries, it’s about when people get fatigue they start putting their bodies in the wrong places to make tackles or absorb the contact and you get injured from there.
“It’s something we need to look at because it was like a M*A*S*H unit tonight, there was blokes getting hurt left, right and centre.”