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Tim Moltzen is looming as the shock replacement should Wests Tigers superstar Benji Marshall fail to overcome a knee injury that threatens his involvement in Friday night's semi-final against Canberra.
Moltzen hasn't played since undergoing a full knee reconstruction in April this year, but is set to visit a specialist this week who he hopes will give him the clearance to resume playing this weekend.
The 21-year-old has been training with the Tigers squad for the past few weeks, though club officials have been insisting the fullback/halfback would not be rushed back in 2010 with a view to having him back on deck for the start of next season.
But Marshall's injury may hasten his comeback, the Tigers without a recognised replacement for the Kiwi playmaker and Moltzen desperate to play.
Club doctor Donald Kuah remained hopeful that Marshall would be right to face the Raiders, despite the pain being so bad he left the Tigers with 12 men for the last five minutes of regular time in their 19-15 golden point loss to the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night.
"He actually did it 15 minutes before he came off, he tried to keep playing with it," Kuah said.
"We'll know the next two or three days. It was just a direct hit on the inside of the knee.
"He is some chance of playing." The Marshall injury is just the start of the Tigers' injury problems, with Gareth Ellis (back), Geoff Daniela (hamstring) and Liam Fulton (knee) also pulling up sore after the heart-breaking loss.
Then there is the mental anguish they will need to put behind them after blowing several chances to win the game in the dying stages, including when Chris Heighington failed to dive on a ball from a scrum win with just 20 seconds remaining which gave Roosters skipper Braith Anasta a chance to send the game to extra time via his dramatic field goal.
"We probably should never have let a 15-2 lead slip away, but the manner in which we lost makes it feel even worse, we had our chances," Ellis said.
"That (getting our heads right) will probably be the biggest challenge for us over the next few days - we can't sulk for too long because we've still got a great opportunity to progress in the competition.
"We need to put that to bed and move on as quickly as we can." Ellis took several painkillers just to get on the field against the Roosters before being forced off late in the game, but remained hopeful of making the trip to the nation's capital.
"It's a little bit stiff and a little bit sore but that's to be expected after a tough game," Ellis said.
http://www.nrl.com/news/news/newsar...zen-shock-option-for-tigers-semi/default.aspx
Moltzen hasn't played since undergoing a full knee reconstruction in April this year, but is set to visit a specialist this week who he hopes will give him the clearance to resume playing this weekend.
The 21-year-old has been training with the Tigers squad for the past few weeks, though club officials have been insisting the fullback/halfback would not be rushed back in 2010 with a view to having him back on deck for the start of next season.
But Marshall's injury may hasten his comeback, the Tigers without a recognised replacement for the Kiwi playmaker and Moltzen desperate to play.
Club doctor Donald Kuah remained hopeful that Marshall would be right to face the Raiders, despite the pain being so bad he left the Tigers with 12 men for the last five minutes of regular time in their 19-15 golden point loss to the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night.
"He actually did it 15 minutes before he came off, he tried to keep playing with it," Kuah said.
"We'll know the next two or three days. It was just a direct hit on the inside of the knee.
"He is some chance of playing." The Marshall injury is just the start of the Tigers' injury problems, with Gareth Ellis (back), Geoff Daniela (hamstring) and Liam Fulton (knee) also pulling up sore after the heart-breaking loss.
Then there is the mental anguish they will need to put behind them after blowing several chances to win the game in the dying stages, including when Chris Heighington failed to dive on a ball from a scrum win with just 20 seconds remaining which gave Roosters skipper Braith Anasta a chance to send the game to extra time via his dramatic field goal.
"We probably should never have let a 15-2 lead slip away, but the manner in which we lost makes it feel even worse, we had our chances," Ellis said.
"That (getting our heads right) will probably be the biggest challenge for us over the next few days - we can't sulk for too long because we've still got a great opportunity to progress in the competition.
"We need to put that to bed and move on as quickly as we can." Ellis took several painkillers just to get on the field against the Roosters before being forced off late in the game, but remained hopeful of making the trip to the nation's capital.
"It's a little bit stiff and a little bit sore but that's to be expected after a tough game," Ellis said.
http://www.nrl.com/news/news/newsar...zen-shock-option-for-tigers-semi/default.aspx
