Canterbury Bulldogs director of football Phil Gould has revealed forward Max King could miss the rest of the season with scans confirming a fracture in his wrist.
King suffered the injury during last weekend’s thrilling golden point win over the New Zealand Warriors.
While initial hopes were that King wouldn’t be facing an extended period on the sideline, Gould confirmed that he has fractured his wrist and will now consult with a surgeon.
Should surgery be required to repair the injury, he will be looking at an eight-week recovery which would see him only able to return at the start of the NRL finals series.
It’s unclear how long King would miss if he was able to avoid surgery.
As it stands, the men in blue and white are well in contention to make the finals, but a debilitating injury list will leave the club scratching and clawing for every win they get over the closing weeks of the season.
King has played 15 games so far this season, averaging 124 metres per contest and tackling at over 95 per cent.
King joins the likes of Jaeman Salmon, Ryan Sutton, Josh Addo-Carr, Drew Hutchison and Blake Taaffe on the sidelines over the coming weeks as Canterbury have a bye, then take on the North Queensland Cowboys (away), Brisbane Broncos (away), Canberra Raiders (home), St George Illawarra Dragons (away), the Dolphins (home), New Zealand Warriors (away), Manly Sea Eagles (home) and North Queensland Cowboys (home) over the final weeks of the season.
The blue and white currently sit fifth on the table, with 9 wins from 16 games. The club likely need three or four wins from their final eight games to qualify for the finals.