Roosters lose another hooker in fresh horror blow against Sharks

Other teams are often in awe of the Sydney Roosters’ depth but it’s under one of its greatest ever test after a fresh disaster.

The Sharks are putting the Roosters to the sword.

The Sydney Roosters’ hooking crisis has plummeted to new depths after Freddy Lussick appeared to suffer a serious arm injury in the first half of the clash against the Cronulla Sharks.

In a week that saw premiership skipper Jake Friend retire after repeated concussions cut his career short at 31, the 20-year-old fill-in went down with a brutal injury.

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It just 17 minutes into the game when Lussick went for a regulation tackle and reeled out of the tackle.

Initially, Fox League commentator Andrew Voss believed that his arm must have gone dead after the hit.

But he quickly left the field in some discomfort.

Lussick came into the match with his elbow strapped and Greg Alexander said he “carried a bad elbow into the match and that hasn’t helped”.

Andrew Voss added that the Roosters officials were quick to get him off the field and said he looked “despondent”.

Freddy Lussick is believed to have a broken arm.

And with good reason as sideline reporter Jake Duke later said that he believed that Lussick had suffered a broken forearm, which would sideline him for weeks.

“Also a blow for the Roosters Freddy Lussick is done for the game they think he could have a fracture in his forearm,” Duke said.

“He will be sent for X-rays.”

It sees Ben Marschke move into the hooking position, after he made his debut for the Roosters last week.

Marschke is 23 and has played plenty of reserve grade football, showing just how deep the Roosters’ issues run.

But if it couldn’t get worse, the sixth string rake was put on report for a crusher tackle in the 28th minute.

“Now a penalty to the Sharks for a crusher,” Andrew Voss said on Fox League.

“Crusher, he was just leaning in over the top there,” Greg Alexander added.

With Friend, Sam Verrills, utility Adam Keighran and even Lachlan Lam having played in the role and now all on the sideline.

He joins a list of players including Luke Keary, Boyd Cordner and Lindsay Collins on the sidelines.

It comes as the NRL reported Verrills’ return was pushed back six weeks after a follow up operation on Tuesday on his ruptured ACL.

Wade Graham has suffered another head knock as well.

With a mountain of talent on the sideline, the Roosters were in plenty of trouble on the scoreboard but came back for a famous come from behind win.

The Sharks, who have their own injury worry with Wade Graham going off for a second HIA in three matches, while Josh Dugan also failed a HIA, ran out to a 12-4 lead at the break and were the first scorers of the second half, making it 18-4 after 53 minutes.

But with 12 minutes to go, the Roosters still down by eight, 18-year-old Sam Walker stamped his authority on the game with a remarkable finish.

Walker scored a silky try and set up two more as the Roosters finish over the top with a 26-18 win from nowhere.

Sharks coach John Morris lamented more injuries and again finishing the game without a full bench.

“We had more adversity today, we lose Wade Graham early, we lose Josh Dugan, we just can’t get through a game without losing anyone,” he said. “But like I said to the boys, that’s 2021. That’s waht you’ve got to be good at, you’ve got to be good at good at adjusting and adapting because there are so many guys going down whether thats rule changes or not but there are a lot of HIAs. We had two today. You’ve got to be smart who you’re bringing off your bench and guys have got to be adaptable and play the positions but we can’t use that as an excuse.”