Matt Lodge may have played his final NRL game after enduring an ACL injury in the team's loss to the Sydney Roosters on Thursday night.
Facing off against the team he recently joined from as a mid-season signing, it took Lodge mere minutes to suffer the injury. The unfortunate sight made him become the third Manly forward in recent weeks to suffer a serious injury, following teammates Josh Aloiai (shoulder) and Taniela Paseka (knee).
Currently on a train-and-trial contract worth $1000 a week, the forward will miss the remainder of the season and could be out for a good chunk of 2024. With no contract for next season, a club will unlikely pick him up, meaning he may have just played his final game in the NRL.
"He has done his ACL, so he is going to be out for an extended period of time," Manly coach Anthony Seibold said in his post-match press conference.
"There are four guys who weren't on the field. Lodgey got injured about four minutes in. That's not an excuse because I thought they won the physical battles and efforts areas in the game, but on the back of us not having four middles not playing, it just became a little bit hard for us.
"He [Lodge] is obviously shattered. We will pick up the pieces over the next couple of days, but I feel for him and I feel for his family," Seibold added.
