Cowboys and Queensland Maroons star Michael Morgan's season is over, following a biceps injury suffered during Friday's loss to the Warriors.
Initially hoping to miss around six weeks, Morgan's injury will require surgery that effectively ends the five-eighth's 2018 campaign.
Maroons coach Kevin Walters is now faced with a forced change to his Origin II lineup next Sunday, while the struggling Cowboys disappointing season goes from bad to worse.
Cowboys coach Paul Green said a lack of confidence had become a big issue at the club following their latest defeat.
"Probably you find a way to win when you're full of confidence and given what has happened so far that has been the tough part," Green told nrl.com.
"To get us out of that you've really got to fight hard, but it's the NRL so it's a tough competition."
Despite the loss, Green said it was a positive turnaround from their poor showing against the Eels in Darwin last week.
"I was proud of the way we responded after last week," Green said.
"I was pretty critical of our effort last week but I thought tonight was better. We just had a couple of periods where we weren't in the game and the game got away from us.
"I'm not happy with the result but I saw some things that I questioned whether or not we still had as a team last week and they were there tonight which was good."