New Zealand Warriors are keeping their fingers crossed as they wait for the results of Nathaniel Roache’s scans. The Warriors hooker went down in the 65th minute during their clash against Penrith after attempting to sidestep.
Roache was forced from the field after collapsing, with the club’s medical staff suspecting the injury to be a torn ACL, which if confirmed, will see Roache’s season come to an end.
This will not be the promising youngster’s first stint on the sidelines, with Roache having suffered a number of injuries in his career already. After his debut season, Roache suffered a torn Achilles in 2017, missing a large chunk of the 2017 season, before sitting out the whole of the following year due to surgery on a lumbar disc injury.
"We have got an orthopaedic surgeon in the dressing room and two very experienced doctors, and they are saying potentially it's a ACL," Warriors coach Stephen Kearney said.
"We won't know exactly until we have had scans done of it."
The game continued to turn sour for the Warriors with a 19-18 golden point loss against Penrith seeing them suffer their ninth loss of the season.
With only two minutes left in the game, the Warriors led Penrith 16-12 but an 80-metre runaway try from Penrith’s Brent Naden saw the Panthers take the lead. A penalty from the Warriors forced golden point but they were unable to hold on, with James Maloney winning the game for the Panthers through a field goal.
The Warriors now sit in 12th position and face a stretch of three away games over the coming weeks. They face a tough road ahead with a potentially season-ending injury looming over Roache’s head and 10 games remaining in their season, nine of which where they will face teams currently sitting inside the top eight.