New South Wales’ quest to level the State of Origin series later this month copped a huge shake on Saturday night, when megastar Broncos prop Payne Haas left the field injured.
On a night that also saw Broncos halfback Adam Reynolds (rib) and centre Herbie Farnworth (bicep) suffer injury blows in Brisbane, Haas departed the field in the 28th minute after hurting the AC joint in his right shoulder.
Brisbane coach Kevin Walters admitted in his post-match conference that Farnworth’s season could be over.
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The Broncos turned in a might victory effort against the Raiders in Brisbane despite the injury carnage, fighting back from two points down at half-time to win 24-18.
The steely display sealed a seventh win in succession and consolidated Brisbane’s spot in the top four.
But the awful night on the injury front is threatening to derail the Broncos’ magnificent resurgence in 2022, as well as the Blues’ mission to square the State of Origin series at 1-1 in Perth on June 26.
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Haas has become a crucial member of Blues coach Brad Fittler’s forward pack since making his debut in game one of the 2019 series.
The 22-year-old has collected nine Origin caps and was influential in the Blues’ 16-10 loss to the Maroons in Sydney on Wednesday night, tallying 143 run metres and 41 tackles.
“He’ll have some scans. He didn’t go back on and he was in obviously a fair bit of pain, as well,” Walters said.
“Given that he just played Origin on Wednesday I just thought he’d had enough, so we left him off.
“Hopefully the scans won’t prove too much damage, but again, we’ll just have to wait and see in the next few days.”
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Reynolds said he was in considerable pain but backed himself to play next week.
“It’s pretty sore. I don’t want to make too many comments about it, but we’ll get scans in the morning and see how we go,” the Broncos captain said.
“But I think I’ll be fine for next week. Needles are pretty good.”
The Broncos will meet the Storm in Melbourne next Friday night, before the Raiders face the Knights in Canberra next Sunday afternoon.
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