Tigers coach Tim Sheens has dropped a bombshell surrounding Adam Doueihi’s suspected season-ending injury, revealing he could have injured more than just his ACL.
The 24-year-old playmaker has suffered three ACL injuries to the same knee and was sidelined in 2018 during his time at the Rabbitohs and in 2021.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, Sheens said the blow is a “nightmare” after the Tigers delivered their best performance yet in 2023.
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“An ACL, same knee… given you know the narrowness of the game, the loss and all the other things, the contribution he put in, yeah pretty disappointed,” Sheens said in the post-match press conference.
“Ask me tomorrow when I wake up and I realise it wasn’t a dream, or a nightmare, those sorts of things, we had a young kid in reserve grade have his second one as well.
“Not a good day for us in that record, most of the bounces went against us in many ways, but I’m very proud of the effort they put in.
“Yeah, will be (losing him for the year) if it is an ACL, it could be more than that.”
Captain Apisai Koroisau was also clearly upset his teammate could be sidelined for an extended period.
“Obviously we feel very sorry for Adam, he’s a big part of the team,” Koroisau said.
Wests Tigers Press Conference | 05:48
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“The boys we’ll get around him and make sure he has the support but he’s going to be feeling pretty down for a while.”
NRL360 co-host Paul Kent also said the blow was a brutal reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in rugby league.
The merger club reeled back an 18-6 halftime deficit to trail by only two points with five minutes remaining before a Maika Sivo try sealed an Eels’ victory.
“It is terrible news, you have to feel for Tim Sheens there, he sat through the almost victory, he saw some things that would make you think that they have finally turned it around,” Kent said.
“Then he loses a player like Doueihi which is more than likely for the season.
“What he did say there that I didn’t like is that it could be possible more (than an ACL), given it was an ACL, you only hope Adam Doueihi can come back from this.”
Now the Tigers will have to field their fifth spine only seven rounds into the season, should Doueihi be ruled out for an extended period.
The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield revealed he believes the decision to allow Jackson Hastings to depart has come back to haunt Sheens.
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Hastings has been excellent for the Knights since he moved as part of a swap deal, with prop David Klemmer going the other way.
Rothfield explained that Sheens wouldn’t have a major halves headache on his hands if Hastings was fill the vacant spot.
“You go back to recruitment, I cannot for the life of me work out why he was released from that club, particularly when you get circumstances like this,” Rothfield said.
“It was because of Bateman, Bateman and him has issues… his ability to play was not the issue,” Kent said.
“But one of the first meetings when Tim Sheens went over and met with John Bateman in England, the word out of the meeting was that John Bateman expressed to him that ‘I’m happy to play with Jackson but I don’t want to play with him long term’,” Fox League’s James Hooper said.
“So off the back of that, they made the tough decision.”
“They had a real dig today, but they’d be in much better shape if Jackson Hastings was at that football club,” Rothfield said.
