The Parramatta Eels suffered a blow earlier this week, when in-form Clint Gutherson was ruled out for the remainder of the season after suffering an ACL injury following the Eels Round 20 clash.
Eels co-captain and forward Beau Scott was also ruled out with a season ending injury following the Eels Round 15 clash earier in the year, but he knows that the time on the sideline will allow his fellow teammate to return bigger and better in 2018.
“That’s the way football is, we get injuries. He is happy but obviously has a little bit of time on the sideline to be able to come back bigger and stronger whenever” Scott said of Gutherson’s injury.
“He has to get an operation on his knee, and will have a long off-season before he gets back but he is in good spirits and cant wait to get back on the field.”
“The injury is coming along slowly. Obviously a bit of time to go before I can get into the swing of thing and get back into training.” He added on his own recovery.
Whilst Gutherson will be a loss to the side, Scott believes that the Blue & Gold will not lose much with young Bevan French returning to the number one jersey.
“Gutho has been great across the park for us, and has played several positions across the park this year. He has done a great job in all of them and was really evolving into a fullback at the time,” Scott said.
“But we have another one there in Bevan, who will slip into that position nicely and will do a great job.”
“I think that Brad has that idea of Bevan being the number one at the Parramatta Club so we won’t lose anything in the number one position this week.” He added.
Watching his teammates in action from the sideline has been tough for Scott, but the forward knows that the side still has plenty of improvements in them ahead of the back end of the year.
“We were a little bit impatient on the weekend,” Scott said.
“We have to learn to build a little bit more pressure at the right end of the field and the points will come.”
“We have a few more weeks to obviously nail that before we get into the pointy end of the year.”
The challenge this week will be against the third placed Brisbane Broncos, who Scott said will provide the Eels a good opportunity to show where they stand in the competition.
“They will be close to full strength so it will be a good challenge for us. Obviously in Sydney but then we play them again later in the year. We have a good opportunity to show what we are about this weekend,” Scott said.
“Darius is a key member to their team and key player in the fullback position so it will be a good challenge.”
And Scott is hoping to see another strong Blue & Gold showing at ANZ Stadium this week.
“We think about it one week at a time. We had to take on the Tigers last week, and we had a great crowd turn up, with 20,000 Eels fans there and we expect the same this week.” Scott said
“We want a lot of support there and it will give us motivation.”
The Eels kick off against the Brisbane Broncos at ANZ Stadium on Friday 28 July in Round 21 of the NRL Telstra Premiership, kick off at 7:50pm.
Click through to purchase your tickets to the clash.
