Bulldogs $3m injury woe threatens historic finals berth

Ahead of a tough road trip to North Queensland on Sunday, Dogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has been forced to dig deep into his roster with eight players from the club’s top 30 unavailable due to injury.

Max King will be out of action for six weeks. Picture: NRL Photos

The Bulldogs have been rocked by a $3 million injury crisis that threatens to halt the club’s charge towards their first final series in eight years.

Ahead of a tough road-trip to North Queensland on Sunday, Dogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has been forced to dig deep into his roster with eight players from the club’s top-30 roster unavailable due to injury.

Within the swollen casualty ward are the club’s most influential players including Josh Addo-Carr (hamstring), Max King (wrist), Jaemon Salmon (jaw), Drew Hutchison (hamstring) and Blake Taaffe (ankle).

Rookies Jack Todd (broken arm) and Karl Oloapu (neck) are also part of the dilemma for the Dogs, who are down to 22 fit players remaining from their top-30 roster.

Such is the depletion of the Bulldogs front-row stocks, Ciraldo could be forced to start a new-look front-row paring with limited recent NRL experience against the Cowboys.

Young prop Samuel Hughes has just 21 first grade games to his name and is likely to be joined in the front-row by either Chris Patolo or Poasa Faamausili.

Prop Chris Patolo will come into the side.

Patolo has played five NRL games in two seasons. His most recent appearance was 13 weeks ago in round seven against the Knights.

Faamausili has also seen limited first-grade games in the past three seasons. He has played in eight games since 2021, with his most recent first grade game for the Dogs from the interchange bench nine weeks ago, against the Raiders.

The Bulldogs will also be sweating on the availability of NSW State of Origin centre and club captain Stephen Crichton in the wake of Wednesday night’s decider.

If Crichton is able to back-up for Canterbury, he will have just one run with the team during their captain’s run on Friday.

Originally published as Bulldogs $3m injury woe threatens historic finals berth