NRL casualty ward: Tom Trbojevic facing up to two months on sideline with hamstring injury

Tom Trbojevic is facing a months out with a hamstring injury, meaning a backline reshuffle for Anthony Seibold’s Sea Eagles and another blow for Michael Maguire’s Blues.

Manly star Tom Trbojevic has had a luckless run with injury after suffering another hamstring issue against the Dolphins on Friday. Credit: NRL Images.

Speedster Toluta’u Koula has been earmarked as Tom Trbojevic’s replacement with the Manly superstar fullback set to spend at least the next two months on the sidelines.

It comes as NSW coach Michael Maguire draws up his own short-list to take over from Trbojevic who is likely to miss the entire Origin series after again injuring his hamstring during Manly’s loss to the Dolphins on Thursday night.

The likes of Bradman Best, Jesse Ramien, Kotoni Staggs and Latrell Mitchell will join in the race to partner Stephen Crichton for the Blues with Crichton’s ability to play on either side of the field giving Maguire some flexibility at the selection table.

The injuries are also starting to mount for Maguire who in recent weeks has lost guaranteed starters Trbojevic and Cam Murray.

Of more concern for the Sea Eagles faithful is how they deal with the next two months without Trbojevic with fears they could slide out of the top eight.

“He’s obviously upset,” Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold said. “He puts in so much work. “He is so diligent with regards to his rehab, his preparation and recovery. It is one of those things. It is unfortunate.

Manly star Tom Trbojevic has had a luckless run with injury after suffering another hamstring issue against the Dolphins on Friday. Credit: NRL Images.

“Of course you would rather not be losing players. There’s no doubt about that. The other teams have injuries as well. We just have to do the best we can. We had experience at the back end of last year.”

Manly will also be missing winger Jason Saab (shoulder) for at least the next month.

The injuries will force a major reshuffle in the backline with Koula likely to wear the no. 1 jersey while Jaxson Paulo will come onto the wing to replace Saab.

“Tolu or Reuben (Garrick) will go back to fullback,” Seibold said. “We’ll probably go with Tolu. He played the last couple games at fullback for us last year and he was really good. “We’ll take a closer look when they come back to training but he is the most likely one.

“(He has trained there) because we were trying to get some preparation in for Origin. He’s done reps there in the pre-season. He has been in there in some sessions as part of our advanced planning.”

Tolutau Koula is the likely replacement at the back for Trbojevic. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

The boost for the Sea Eagles is that they have a lighter schedule while Trbojevic is missing. They have byes in round 13 and 17 and given he was an Origin certainty, Trbojevic would have been unavailable for matches during that period. Although they do play competition heavyweights Brisbane, Melbourne and Penrith in their next three games.

Trbojevic will remain with the Sea Eagles squad in Queensland as they remain in the sunshine state ahead of their clash against the Broncos in Magic Round.

Trbojevic has spent time in the US to work on his hamstrings with reconditioning specialist Bill Knowles. His latest injury came as he raced across the field to try and halt a Dolphins try before crashing into a camera operator on the sidelines. The damage had been done before the incident.

Seibold said he would pay little attention to any calls to move Trbojevic into the centres.

“He played the first 10 games and he didn’t have an issue,” Seibold said. “He obviously overstretched on that play. I thought he had a pretty decent start to the year at fullback.”

Originally published as NRL casualty ward: Tom Trbojevic facing up to two months on sideline with hamstring injury