The Melbourne Storm could be without Jesse Bromwich for a lengthy period of time, with the star front-rower dislocating his thumb in the club's season-opening NRL win over Canterbury.

"It is a big blow, huge. He didn't even hesitate to come off," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said at the post-match press conference.

"As soon as he was in the tackle, and it was a pretty innocuous tackle it didn't look like anything, but all of a sudden he was headed for the sideline which is not like him at all so he knew he'd done some bad damage.

"He's dislocated it โ€“ I don't know whether he's busted it or not but he's dislocated it, it's come through the skin so he's obviously looked down โ€“ I think he actually put his hand and felt the bone sticking out with his thumb sort of drooping down, that's why he knew there was something wrong so I imagine that's going to be a fair few weeks."