Heartbreaking Brett Morris scenes sour Roosters’ Knights thumping

The Roosters injury crisis has deepened further with some of the most devastating blows — but a commentator has called out an “amateur” act.

Josh checks on Brett Morris after the injury.

The Sydney Roosters have claimed a 38-4 win over the Newcastle Knights in Newcastle, but the win has been overshadowed by two more horrific injuries for Roosters stars.

Inside the last 10 minutes, Origin forward Lindsay Collins and superstar winger Brett Morris went down with what looked like serious knee injuries that many feared would end their seasons.

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The Roosters finished with just 11 players on the park.

Collins’ injury was concerning enough, with teammate Jared Waerea-Hargraves leaving the interchange bench to go and look after his friend. But moments later Morris, the leading try scorer this season, was bundled into touch then quickly grasped his knee.

Both injuries are believed to be ACL-related, which could spell the end of Morris’ career.

When it was clear he was in serious pain, the commentators let out a collective “oh no”. The 34-year-old veteran was screaming in agony.

“This is cruel,” Fox League’s Andrew Voss said.

The seriousness of the injury was clear immediately with his twin brother, Roosters centre Josh, coming to check on his welfare.

Coach Trent Robinson confirmed the injury could be a career-ending blow, but said: “I’d like to think there’s a chance that it’s not what we think it is, but it’s a sad night for us.”

‘You’re kidding me’: Commentator calls out NRL

Brett Morris chose to skip the medicab but didn't take the direct path to the sheds.

Voss was furious Morris was made to walk around the edge of the field after he was taken into touch on the far side of the field.

After the match, Robinson confirmed Morris refused to take a medicab and wanted to walk off the field.

“C’mon, it’s 2021,” Voss said. “You’re kidding me. You want to go around the back. You’re cracking jokes. We’ve got to be better than this. We can’t have a player that has to go around 100m more than to get to the change rooms, where’s the medicab for crying out loud. That’s outrageous. We’re making the player go all the way around the ground.”

While Voss mustn’t have realised that Morris turned down the medicab, the point remains that he wasn’t able to take the most direct path off the field.

“Such is the distance Morris has to travel, he might not make it to dressing rooms before full-time,” Voss added. “I can’t believe that. We worry about player welfare and bring in so many rules about player welfare, we’re at a multimillion-dollar stadium, we’re being watched by hundred of thousands of people here tonight …”

“ … and it looks like park footy,” Greg Alexander interrupted.

“That’s right, it does. It’s amateur hour,” Voss finished.

Josh Morris then completed the win with a try of his own — his third of the night — but his thoughts were clearly with his brother.

Josh then spoke to Fox League after the game.

“I was trying to find out but he was in a fair bit of pain,” Morris said. “Fingers and toes crossed that it’s nothing serious, same as Lindsay. It’s nice to come up here and get a win but when you get two injuries in the final five minutes, it puts a bit of a dampener on it. All I know is that he’s in a lot of pain and it’s going to be a tough drive home.”

Tear-jerking scenes as Morris breaks down

The Morris twins next to each other in the sheds.

Brett (right) was shattered.

Footage inside the Roosters changeroom after the game showed Brett sitting down with ice on his knee, looking dejected.

But as teammates and his brother came in to hug him, Morris quickly broke down. He and Josh shared a lengthy embrace and when they finally parted, Brett was wiping away tears, fearful his career might be done.

Always have your brother's back 💔 #NRLKnightsRoosters

👉 https://t.co/PMjGULxa7Ypic.twitter.com/zG3i4zdNig

— Fox League (@FOXNRL) May 1, 2021

‘Nobody gets a fairytale’: Worst fears for Morris

Robinson was far from confident that it would be good news.

“Shattering is the word,” he said in his post-match press conference. “It’s really disappointing.

“Really proud of the way the guys played, we came up here and we backed up the last couple of weeks into another good performance.

“The end was … whatever adjective you want to use, but it was a really tough night for us. I think they are both the same, from what I know. Both knees, won’t be back again this year.

“It’s one of the proudest and worst sheds I’ve been in. It’s a group of guys who really like each other and you’ve got a guy who is a legend of our game who has possibly just finished his career.

“Footy rolls on, so we’ll get back to it. We’ve got guys that haven’t played that need to play. No one gets a fairytale. Jake didn’t get one, Brett didn’t get one … if it is that case, but they also did get fairytales in the way their careers were played.”

Fox League’s Mal Meninga said he’s not a doctor but he hoped it wasn’t an ACL as “it could be the end”.

“But let’s hope for the best and that it’s not as serious as we think it is,” he added. “You don’t want to end you career like that. It’s just part of life but you wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy.”

Cooper Cronk added that Morris appeared to know within himself how bad it was.

“It is really hard to look at these scenes of a guy that has given his life to the game may possibly have just played his last game.

“You think about all the best wingers in our game, I know Ken Irvine goes down as the best with the amount of tries that he has scored, but this guy is literally just behind him.

“I can’t think of too many wingers that have notched up the scoring rate that he has at the levels that he has.”