Manly aren’t giving up hope on Tom Trbojevic playing again this NRL season, with the Sea Eagles’ fullback avoiding a ruptured pectoral in their loss to Melbourne.
Trbojevic will see a specialist on Monday after scans had confirmed a torn pectoral muscle, with the club hopeful he will need only a three or four-week recovery.
That would mean the Manly superstar could return for the preliminary finals if the Sea Eagles advance that far.
To do so, Manly will need to overturn a poor recent record without the Kangaroos’ star.
Before he went off on on Saturday evening in the ninth minute, they had won 10 of 11 games this year when their fullback had been on the park.
Without him in the past two years, they have won just four of 13.
Brendan Elliot will likely start at the back, after a solid showing earlier in the year deputising as Trbojevic had battled hamstring woes.
“It’s been one of those years for him, (Trbojevic)” Manly coach Des Hasler said.
“But the side have shown all year that they’re pretty resilient. Someone will step up and do a good job.
“(But) we want to do better than (against Melbourne). I don’t think there was an error we didn’t make.”
Manly’s key attacking weapon, the Sea Eagles had averaged 26 points a match with him in the team this year before Saturday.
Without him, that figure drops to 17.
The 22-year-old’s injury wasn’t the only one to hit Manly on Saturday.
Prop Morgan Boyle suffered a shoulder blow with scans on Monday expected to confirm the end of his season.
Scarce on depth up front, Manly will likely be forced to call Lloyd Perrett up for his first game of the year on the bench, with Jack Gosiewski moving to the middle and Corey Waddell starting on the edge.
Prop Toafofoa Sipley and second-rower Joel Thompson are also still unavailable through injury.
“We’re not only walking away with a loss – we’ve got a couple of serious injuries off the back of it,” Hasler said.
“And our depth has already been tested. So we’re going to have to dig a bit deeper.”
Manly will need to beat Parramatta on Friday night and have results go in their favour to finish in the top four, otherwise they face an elimination match in the first week of finals.