Addo-Carr’s Origin hopes hit by fresh Dogs blow

George Clarke | April 7, 2023

Josh Addo-Carr’s hopes of a State of Origin recall hang by a thread after the winger joined Canterbury’s growing injury list.

The Bulldogs flyer, who missed out on Origin selection for NSW last year, rolled his ankle at Accor Stadium as the Bulldogs suffered a 50-16 defeat to South Sydney at Accor Stadium.

Addo-Carr was in agony as he limped off the field after injuring his syndesmosis and Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo painted a grim outlook for his star winger. 

“He’s going for scans now, something in the ankle – it doesn’t look great,” said Ciradlo.

“We haven’t had much luck with injuries.

“It hurt the rotations a little bit … but that’s footy. People get injured and you’ve got to shuffle the decks.”

A syndesmosis diagnosis would leave Addo-Carr racing the clock to be fit for the series opener in Adelaide on May 31.

The Bulldogs went into the Good Friday meeting with the Rabbitohs without several regular first graders but Ciraldo refused to blame his inexperienced outfit for their second-half capitulation.

“There’s no real common injury or anything like that, it’s just unfortunately a bit of bad luck at the moment,” Ciraldo said.

“It’s not ideal but that’s not why we lost by 50.

“We’ve got guys in our club who are capable of doing the job, we’ve got a good reserve grade side, we’ve got good up and coming young players, it’s just that we didn’t do it today.”

The Bulldogs hope Viliame Kikau, Tevita Pangai Jr and Raymond Faitala-Mariner will all be back on deck for next weekend’s meeting with Parramatta.

Souths winger Izaac Thompson will also undergo scans on an ankle after being the victim of a hipdrop tackle from Canterbury forward Jacob Preston in the second half.