Parramatta Eels hooker Nathan Peats may be cleared of ACL injury
by: CHRISTIAN NICOLUSSI
June 16, 2015 9:00PM
THERE was hope that Parramatta hooker Nathan Peats hadnt ruptured his ACL, while teammate *Anthony Watmough is unlikely to miss any game time because of his ongoing *shoulder problem.
Peats, Watmough and Kaysa Pritchard will all go for scans on Wednesday after they picked up injuries during the Eels 26-22 win over Melbourne on Monday night.
Fullback Reece Robinson also fractured his eye socket, and was ordered to catch a train home to Sydney rather than fly. He was expected to arrive at Central on Tuesday night four hours after his teammates touched down across town.
While Peats feared he had suffered a season-ending knee injury on Monday an injury which cut short his 2014 season Eels coach Brad Arthur told The Daily Telegraph the injury may not be as serious as first thought.
The bye round couldnt have come at a better time for the patched-up Eels because David Gower and Brad Takarangi have also had to carry ankle and knee injuries respectively in recent weeks.
Were pretty hopeful its not Peatsys (ACL), Arthur said.
We have to get it confirmed tomorrow, but all the advice weve been getting from the medicos at the moment is theyre pretty confident thats not the issue.
We dont want to get ahead of ourselves.
Choc (Watmough) will get his shoulder scanned, but hes been carrying a few little things for a while now, so the week off will do him good. Hes been playing with the injury for four or five games, so a week off is what he needs. Were pretty confident he wont have to miss any games.
Pritchard, however, could be looking at an extended stint on the sidelines after he suffered a pectoral muscle injury. He missed a big chunk of this season after he tore his pectoral muscle during the Auckland Nines.
Robinson suffered his eye socket injury early, and was ordered not to board the team flight. Instead, the fullback Robinson made the long 11-hour lonely journey home via rail.
Just who Arthur gets to wear his No. 1 jumper now remains to be seen.
Robinson had been the pick of an average bunch, with Will Hopoate shifted back to centre, while off-contract playmaker Chris Sandow again proved a liability when filling in against the Storm and was much more effective in the halves.
Corey Norman is one option and if he was to move, Luke Kelly would be cleared to return to the halves and end his *second-tier salary cap-enforced spell from the NRL.
Eels fans must be wondering if only Cronulla had honoured their deal to release Michael Gordon mid-season.
Arthur will also need to find a back-up hooker, even if Peats doesnt miss any games, because Isaac De Gois is still at least a month away as he recovers from facial fractures.
The win over the Storm was just what the Eels needed.
Off the back of what happened last week, it was good we toughed it out, Arthur said.
We only completed three of our last nine sets, so we gave them chances to win it, but we showed good fighting spirit.
