Roosters ‘dropping like flies’ with more injuries against Cowboys

The Sydney Roosters are still the NRL premiership favourites but the back-to-back premiers are really testing their depth.

Jake Friend failed his head injury assessment.

The Sydney Roosters’ premiership defence is being tested in the season restart having again seen two more injuries to continue to test the side’s depth.

The side are particularly weak at hooker at the moment with Sam Verrills and Victor Radley both out for the season with ACL injuries after the match against the Dragons, skipper Jake Friend was ruled out of the remainder of the match against the Cowboys before halftime after failing a head injury assessment.

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It comes after Brett Morris pulled out of the match before kick-off, clutching his groin before the decision was made to stand down for the game.

Brett Morris ruled out in the warm up after suffering a groin injury. Most minor groin strains considered day to day, but can symptoms can linger & 5-10% recurrence rate. General recovery guide:
Grade 1: 1-3wks
Grade 2: 3-6wks
Grade 3: 6+wks#NRLCowboysRoosters

— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) July 9, 2020

And yet somehow, among a series of handling errors, the Roosters took a 12-6 lead to the break before exploding with six tries in 24 minutes after the break.

Winger Matt Ikuvalu, who came in for Morris, dominated with five tries, becoming the first Rooster since Brian Allsop in Round 10 1955 to reach the tally.

The Cowboys had injury trouble of their own with Valentine Holmes hobbling off with the reoccurence of an ankle injury after being brought back on the wing to manage the injury.

Former NSW Origin half and premiership winner Jamie Soward slammed the decision of the Cowboys to bring their $5.7m star signing back early.

Players always want to play. Even when injured I always wanted to play. At the end of the day a STRONG coach will do what’s best for the player and not worry about the team because he knows playing a guy injured isn’t for everyone. If vals out a long time now.... then wat?

— Jamie Soward (@sowwowofficial6) July 9, 2020

Where’s the reward. Playing him injured to make it worse for a team that’s not making the 8. #green maybe trying to save job.

— Jamie Soward (@sowwowofficial6) July 9, 2020

Can we just let Holmes’ ankle recover properly please? So sick of seeing him limp around. Just let him recover and bring him back at 💯 #NRLCowboysRoosters

— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) July 9, 2020

The past three weeks have seen seven players from last years’ Roosters grand final winning team sidelined.

Verrills and Radley sparked a debate around the Bankwest Stadium turf when both went down with their serious injuries.

Last week Isaac Liu broke a rib, while Daniel Tupou had an ankle injury, while regular captain Boyd Cordner went down with concussion in the dying stages of the side’s heartbreaking loss to the Storm and missed the game against the Cowboys.

This week has continued down the same path with Morris out before kick-off as a precaution, while Friend left behind after bouncing off the hip as Reece Robson left him behind as he scored the Cowboys’ try.

Not Brett Morris! The Roosters star is OUT after a warm up injury - will this on top of the Roosters' injury crisis...

Posted by news.com.au Sport on Thursday, July 9, 2020

Just before halftime, Fox League commentator Andrew Voss said the side were “dropping like flies the Roosters when you look at their grand final team last year”.

At halftime on Fox League, Yvonne Sampson asked whether it was “the Boyd Cordner effect” without their skipper with eight errors throughout the first half and a 64 per cent completion rate.

On Channel 9, Peter Sterling called it the Roosters’ “worst half of football” in 2020, going back to when the side lost its first two games of the season.

But after the stunning win, it’s an ominous message for the rest of the competition, especially with the Roosters’ leading despite the injury crisis — imagine how hard they’ll be at full-strength.