The Manly Sea Eagles have officially confirmed how long duo Tom Trbojevic and Jason Saab will remain on the sidelines after they both sustained injuries on Thursday night against The Dolphins.
After a day of speculation, the club has confirmed that Trbojevic "is expected to be unavailable for approximately 7 weeks with a hamstring injury", while Jason Saab has an A/C injury and "will have a short period to recover and is expected to be out for a couple of weeks".
The confirmation means he has been ruled out for Game One of the 2024 State of Origin series and will likely miss Game Two.
Sustaining his sixth hamstring injury of his career, he will remain with the squad in Queensland ahead of the Magic Round but will be absent for matches against the Brisbane Broncos, Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers.
“He's obviously upset,” the club's coach, Anthony Seibold, said via The Daily Telegraph.
“He puts in so much work. He is so diligent with regards to his rehab, his preparation and recovery. It is one of those things. It is unfortunate.
“Of course you would rather not be losing players. There's no doubt about that.
"The other teams have injuries as well. We just have to do the best we can. We had experience at the back end of last year.”
The injury to Trbojevic not only affects the NSW Blues for the opening two games but will also shake up the Manly Sea Eagles backline for the next couple of months.
His absence from the team will see either Reuben Garrick or Tolutau Koula handed the number one jumper - Koula has emerged as the frontrunner for the fullback role.
While former Sydney Roosters winger Jaxson Paulo is the likely choice to replace Jason Saab for the next couple of weeks, having done so earlier in the season.
“Tolu or Reuben (Garrick) will go back to fullback,” Seibold added.
“We'll probably go with Tolu. He played the last couple games at fullback for us last year and he was really good.
“We'll take a closer look when they come back to training but he is the most likely one.
“(He has trained there) because we were trying to get some preparation in for Origin. He's done reps there in the pre-season.
"He has been in there in some sessions as part of our advanced planning.”