NRL 2022 Casualty Ward: Josh Schuster set to miss first six weeks of NRL season

The Manly Sea Eagles will be without one of their brightest young stars to start the season due to a serious injury suffered at training.

Harley Smith-Shields was set to be a huge part of Canberra’s attack in 2022. Picture: NRL Images

Manly has been rocked on the eve of the trials with boom edge-forward Josh Schuster suffering a serious leg injury at training.

X-rays have revealed the 20-year-old forward is suffering from syndesmosis (high ankle sprain) and could miss up to the first six weeks of the season.

He was spotted in Manly’s team photo at training on Tuesday in a moon boot.

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Schuster established himself as one of the NRL’s best forwards last season.

This is the second year in a row Manly has been hard hit in the pre-season after losing champion fullback Tom Trbojevic for the first month of last season.

Manly faces a brutal opening fortnight to the competition with matches against premiership favourites the Penrith Panthers and the Sydney Roosters.

Josh Schuster has a serious leg injury. Picture: NRL Photos

FEARS BLORE’S SEASON IS OVER

— Brent Read

Wests Tigers forward Shawn Blore has been sent for scans on his knee amid fears that his season is over.

Blore, who has already undergone a knee reconstruction, injured his knee at training on Friday and was immediately sent for further tests.

Tigers officials fear he has suffered another ACL tear, which would spell the end of his season. Blore had been one of the Tigers’ most impressive performers in the pre-season and there was genuine optimism at the club that he was poised for a breakthrough year.

Shawn Blore suffered a knee injury at training and could miss the 2022 season. Picture: Gregg Porteous/NRL Photos

Those hopes may have been dashed as Tigers officials await confirmation of the extent of his injury.

“Wests Tigers forward Shawn Blore has undergone scans today to confirm the extent of a knee injury suffered at training,” the Tigers said in a statement.

“Blore left the training field on Friday morning with a suspected ACL injury, however is awaiting further results. The injury was sustained in the other knee following his previous ACL injury in 2019.”

YOUNG RAIDER’S SHATTERING BLOW 

— David Riccio

The Raiders have suffered a major blow ahead of their 2022 NRL campaign with rising star Harley Smith-Shields to miss the entire season.

The Green Machine’s 2021 rookie of the year has been left devastated by the prospect of season-ending surgery after tearing his ACL.

The injury that is undoubtedly every professional athlete’s worst nightmare occurred for the 22-year-old during a routine training drill in Canberra on Wednesday.

The news is particularly difficult to take for the Raiders inner-sanctum with the entire coaching staff of the opinion that Smith-Shields had proven so impressive over the pre-season that he would be one of the first outside backs chosen for round one of the new competition.

Powerful, particularly on kick-returns, Smith-Shields was considered a major piece of the Raiders backline in 2022.

With co-captain Jarrod Croker also attempting to prolong his career with stem-cell surgery on his knee - and no certainty to start the year, Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is already looking to his depth chart before a game has been played.

Harley Smith-Shields was set to be a huge part of Canberra’s attack in 2022. Picture: NRL Images

Nick Cotric, Matt Timoko, Xavier Savage, Sebastian Kris, Jordan Rapana, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Semi Valemai and Albert Hopoate are who Stuart will select his backline from.

Smith-Shields shared the club’s rookie honours last season with Timoko. That is, after Smith-Shield played just seven matches for the entire year.

At the beginning of last season, Smith-Shields suffered a ruptured bicep tendon in a Raiders NSW Cup match.

Subsequent surgery left him sidelined for four months, returning in round 19, 2021.

Smith-Shields played each of the Raiders final seven matches of the season on the wing, scoring three tries.

Originally published as NRL 2022 Casualty Ward: Josh Schuster set to miss first six weeks of NRL season