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Nathan Cleary has been sidelined with a minor hamstring injury, Penrith has confirmed.
The superstar halfback was substituted out in the final 10 minutes of the Panthers’ 34-12 win over Brisbane on Thursday night.
After feeling more discomfort than anticipated, the 26-year-old was sent for scans.
The Panthers are expected to release a formal update on Cleary’s condition today.
He will not be named in the team to face the Sydney Roosters on Thursday and could also miss the visit to Manly on April 6.
The Panthers have a bye in round six and are hopeful Cleary could return for their first game after that — against Wests Tigers in Bathurst on April 20.
Former Canberra playmaker Brad Schneider is expected to make his club debut in Cleary’s place, lining up next to Jarome Luai in the halves at Sydney Football Stadium this week.
Cleary needed six weeks to recover after tearing his left hamstring in a tight win over St George Illawarra last June, missing the final two games of NSW’s State of Origin campaign.
Penrith also has doubts about James Fisher-Harris, whose shoulder injury it describes as a week-by-week proposition.
The damage is not thought to be severe but the prop missed last week’s win over the Broncos and is no certainty to return to face the Roosters.
A low-grade hamstring strain is likely to keep Roosters prop Lindsay Collins out of Thursday’s clash.
Collins has commenced rehabilitation, the Roosters said on Monday, with back-up five-eighth Sandon Smith (elbow) also in doubt.
The Roosters said Smith suffered a “significant medial ligament injury to his left elbow” just before halftime of Friday’s 48-6 hammering of South Sydney.
In better news for the Roosters, halfback Sam Walker has been cleared of concussion and will line up against the Panthers.
The bunker’s independent doctor originally ruled Walker had suffered a category-one head injury in the second half of Friday’s game, which would have ruled him out for 11 days.
But the NRL’s chief medical officer has since engaged two other independent doctors to assess Walker, whose injury was downgraded to category two.
Moses set to miss two months with fractured foot
Mitch Moses has fractured his left foot in a devastating blow to Parramatta’s hopes of bouncing back into finals contention this NRL season.
The Eels released a statement confirming Moses was expected to miss up to eight weeks with his injury, which will also hamper his campaign for State of Origin selection.
The 29-year-old was the NSW halfback for the final two games of last year’s series in the absence of Cleary.
After undergoing surgery, Moses will race the clock to be in consideration for a spot in the Origin set-up this year.
If he misses eight weeks, Moses will return with only one game to prove himself before teams are selected for the series opener, to be played in Sydney on June 5.
The injury will also have serious ramifications for the Eels, who needed to contend with instability in the halves last season as they crashed out of finals contention.
Ex-Warriors utility Daejarn Asi filled in at five-eighth when Dylan Brown missed seven games through suspension last season and is the likely candidate to join the halves again.
The Eels’ other back-up playmaker, Jake Arthur, son of coach Brad, left the club midway through last season to join Manly.
Parramatta host Wests Tigers on Easter Monday for their first match without Moses, but star winger Maika Sivo is expected to return from suspension for his first game of the year.
AAP
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