Melbourne Rebels hopeful Marika Koroibete can make his debut at the Brisbane Tens

MELBOURNE are hopeful a knee injury to Marika Koroibete won’t stop their star recruit from making his highly anticipated debut at the Brisbane Tens.

MELBOURNE are hopeful a knee injury to Marika Koroibete won’t stop their star recruit from making his highly anticipated debut at the Brisbane Tens.

Koroibete, who was signed from the Melbourne Storm last year by the ARU and the Rebels, is understood to have damaged an mediate cruciate ligament in pre-season training with his new club two weeks ago.

Injury to an MCL is not as serious as cruciate ligament damage but can take between four and eight weeks to recover.

REBELS STRENGTHEN JAPANESE TIES

Koroibete should be ready to play again in mid-February. Picture: Nicole Garmston

The Rebels confirmed Koroibete’s injury but said they are confident he will still be available to run out in the Brisbane Tens, which will be played at Suncorp Stadium on February 11 and 12.

The club intend to include Koroibete in their squad for the Tens when it is named on Tuesday.

Coming after a week where news emerged of All Black players potentially withdrawing en masse, the Brisbane Tens’ organisers will be praying Koroibete possesses the same rapid healing powers of many of his Fiji brethren.

But with an injury crisis already hitting the club — and arguably the toughest Super Rugby draw — the Rebels would be unlikely to take any chances with their star recruit, who went on the Wallabies Spring Tour late last year.

The club’s second trial comes after the Tens weekend, against the Reds on Tuesday February 14 at Ballymore, and that may present another option for Koroibete to return if he is fit.

If Koroibete’s knee injury turns out to be more serious, he may miss the early rounds of Super Rugby and in worrying signs for the Victorian club, the flying Fijian winger is far from the only Rebel currently occupying the injury ward.

After getting married last weekend, star Wallaby Sean McMahon has had surgery on an ankle injury suffered on Australian duty and is expected to miss the first month at least.

Fit locks are in thin supply, with Sam Jeffries having had clean-up surgery on an ankle and new Welsh recruit Dominic Day also expected to miss a handful of games early in the season with a shoulder injury suffered in recently completed Top League season in Japan.

And in devastating news for Pama Fou, the Rebels’ recruit from the Australian sevens team will miss the season after suffering another ruptured ACL.

Fou’s injury to a big blow for the Rebels. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Fou was a certainty for the Rio Olympics but was ruled out after blowing his knee in June with a freak slip in the shower at home. He made the switch to 15s and was recruited by the Rebels but in a stroke of horrific luck, the 27-year-old former Queensland volleyballer re-injured the same knee during training earlier this year.

The Rebels’ injury troubles would be bad enough but Melbourne’s brute of a draw means McGahan will need as many fit troops as possible from the outset.

The Rebels play four Kiwi teams in the opening six weeks — along with the Waratahs — and though they have three home games and a bye in there, there aren’t too many tougher draws for any side in the competition.

Originally published as Melbourne Rebels hopeful Marika Koroibete can make his debut at the Brisbane Tens