‘A good sign’: hopes that Trindall injury’s not serious
Darren Walton |
A leading physiotherapist is predicting injured Cronulla playmaker Braydon Trindall will return before the NRL finals in a huge title boost for the beleaguered Sharks.
After bagging Cronulla’s first try with a chip and regather, Trindall lasted less than 10 minutes on Saturday as the Sharks surrendered an early 8-0 lead to Canberra in the five-eighth’s absence.
The Sharks confirmed on Sunday that Trindall would avoid immediate surgery and they hoped he would play again “at some stage this season”, with three weeks to go before finals.
After learning more about the nature of Trindall’s dislocation, veteran pyhsio Luke D’Apice was confident the 27-year-old won’t be sidelined for an extended period.
“(Coach Craig) Fitzgibbon said it ‘went out and straight back in … immediately’. That’s a good sign,” D’Apice told AAP on Sunday.
“Hopefully a very good sign. You can’t even be sure it went out in this situation, to be honest. They are purely going off Tricky’s recount in this situation.
“I don’t know if he has a history of shoulder dislocations and has a floppy shoulder or not.
“But hopefully it’s just a subluxation whereby it never really went totally out, but moved in a way that felt very unusual for him and pain ensued, which obviously creates more concern.”
D’Apice is hoping for Cronulla fans that scans will reveal no major damage.
“I’m thinking it’s less more likely he will return in zero to two weeks and at least to have a run around in round 27,” he said.
The 24-year-old Niwhai Puru shapes as the obvious replacement.
Puru, who will join the Perth Bears next season, scored on debut deputising for Nicho Hynes in the Sharks’ round-13 win over Manly.
“Yeah, look, he performed that like really well for us in the time when Nicho was hurt,” coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.
“I’ll have a look at that. He’s obviously like NRL ready and the times he played, he’s played pretty good. So we’ll look at that but I’m still doing (crossing fingers) and hoping Tricky’s OK.”
Trindall leads the competition this season for try assists, with 32, six more than Nathan Cleary, and Cronulla will want him back on deck ASAP as they likely need to beat the Titans, Parramatta and Melbourne to make the all-important top four.
But Fitzgibbon rejected suggestions Hynes struggled without his partner in crime against Canberra.
“I thought he stepped up. Everything we nearly created came off him,” Fitzgibbon said of the oft-maligned 2022 Dally M Medallist.
“It wasn’t through a lack of stepping up and creating opportunities. To be fair to Nicho, I thought he actually did create plenty and the other guys didn’t capitalise on that.”
AAP