Dyldam Parramatta Eels Head Coach Brad Arthur was optimistic his side’s injury toll wouldn’t mark the end of their 2015 run after the side’s Round 19 loss to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
The game saw five-eighth-turned-fullback Corey Norman leave the field with a suspected osterior cruciate ligament injury, while interchange forward Pauli Pauli was benched after displaying signs of concussion.
“There are still 7 games to go,” Arthur said.
“But we’ve got a few injuries out of it which might hurt. [Corey] will have to have scans, and David Gower, it was his knee, but I’m not sure.”
“Pauli’s not too bad, but Danny Wicks’ shoulder, he’s been carrying that for a long time now and it’s at the stage where he can’t lift it, so it’s probably an operation now.”
Halfback Chris Sandow caused a scare at the Eels’ Captain’s Run leading into the game with medical staff checking his hamstring, but Arthur said despite his heavily-strapped leg, the number 7’s fitness wasn’t an issue in the loss.
“At training yesterday he had a slight strain in his hamstring but he said he was fine [and medical staff agreed],” Arthur said.
“I thought we tried really hard tonight and we were just outclassed. In attack we just got a bit flustered at times.”
“Our composure wasn’t great, things got the better of us, and a couple of those tries they scored [were caused by] blokes trying to solve them on their own coming out of the line.”
