Parramattaย forward Reagan Campbell-Gillard has avoided a suspected hip fracture, with the Eels forward likely to come away from a nasty hip drop incident with a groin injury.
Campbell-Gillard was the recipient of a hip drop tackle from Brisbane Broncos prop Payne Haas during the second half.
While he was taken from the park and was described post-game as "struggling to walk" by coach Brad Arthur, who was left fuming at the lack of consistency from officials after Haas was able to stay on the park.
It followed two earlier sin bins from hip drops, which saw J'maine Hopgood and Ezra Mam both spend ten minutes off the park, with all three defenders now to sweat on the match review committee's charge sheet which will be released on Saturday morning.
"I don't think it's great," Arthur said.
"It's his groin. He is in a lot of pain and can hardly walk.
"I think it'll be more than a couple of weeks."
โI'm not an expert on hip drops, but to me, all three of them look pretty similar and I know which one has the worst result.
โIf their feet are off the ground, and that's what happened.โ
Panthers forward Isaah Yeo revealed toย Triple Mย that after reaching out to Campbell-Gillard he learnt that the New South Wales forward has been cleared of a potential hip fracture.
The full extent of the reported groin injury is yet to be know.
The prop has been key for Parramatta so far this year, and any long-term injury will put more pressure on the ailing blue and gold, who are yet to hit their straps this season, winning just three of their first eight in an attempt to replicate last year's push to the grand final.
Despite the nature of the tackle from Haas, Broncos' coach Kevin Walters couldn't be drawn into a slanging match, suggesting that he didn't see too much drama with the Haas tackle.
"I'm a coach obviously so I can't really adjudicate on what the referees are seeing," Walters said.
"I believe it went upstairs to the bunker and they must have cleared it. I'm not sure, but we will let the people that need to look after that stuff look after it.
"I didn't see too much dramatic with it."
Walters also bucked the trend of coaches asking for clearer definitions on hip drops in recent weeks, suggesting it was simply a tackle that has crept into the game despite not being coached at training.
"No, not really," Walters said when asked whether he was confused over hip drop definitions.
"It's a tackle that has crept into the game. No coach in the game is coaching players to go out and do that. We have too much respect for each other.
"Sometimes, it comes into the game. It's unfortunate if there are some, but we will let the officials adjudicate, we will keep coaching, and the players will keep playing."
Brisbane remain at the top of the table and will play a blockbuster clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs at home in the primetime game next Friday.
