St George Illawarra captain Gareth Widdop will be out for at least six weeks with the knee injury he suffered in the Dragons’ epic golden-point loss to the Sydney Roosters on Anzac Day.
Widdop was outstanding in the first half before he hobbled off two minutes before half-time in the 13-12 extra-time defeat.
The 28-year-old had led the Dragons to the top of the NRL table with his consistently impressive form but now could be out until the round 14 clash with Canterbury.
The silver lining for St George Illawarra is that Widdop may only miss four games for the club in that time. While he will also miss England’s Test against Samoa at Campbelltown next weekend, the Dragons do not play on the representative weekend and have a bye in round 12.
If Widdop’s recovery stays within the mooted six-week recovery, he will miss this weekend’s clash with Melbourne as well as matches against Cronulla, New Zealand Warriors and the Wests Tigers.
St George Illawarra’s head of athletic performance Nathan Pickworth said after the game on Tuesday that Widdop had suffered a “moderate to high grade” injury to his medial ligament and, after the five-eighth underwent scans on Wednesday, provided an update.
“Scans have shown he has some significant damage to his medial collateral ligament of his left knee,” Pickworth said.
“So the next two weeks he’ll be in a brace. After those two weeks will largely give us a good indication of his return to play time frame. Hopefully he’ll be somewhere around the six week mark.”
There was some good news for St George Illawarra on the injury front, with representative fullback Josh Dugan’s troublesome hamstring given the all clear after the extra-time loss to the Roosters.
