Injury fears over Green
The one man the Warriors couldn’t afford to lose this season has gone down with an injury at training.
Veteran half Blake Green reportedly suffered a hamstring injury on Tuesday.
Following star halfback Shaun Johnson’s sensational off-season switch to the Cronulla Sharks, Green is set to play a critical role in the Warriors’ 2019 campaign.
In new signing Adam Keighran plus Chanel Harris-tavita and Hayze Perham, the Warriors have three players who are yet to make their NRL debuts, competing to replace Johnson.
Unless the club signs another half, which seems unlikely, keeping Green fit and healthy is crucial to the Warriors’ chances in 2019.
Johnson’s unexpected departure from the club came hot on the heels of back-up halfback Mason Lino, who departed for an opportunity to join the Newcastle Knights in 2019, leaving the club short of depth in the pivotal position.
According to Nine’s Wide World of Sports, Greens’s injury is not serious but it will rule him out of the club’s two trials in late February and early March.
Nine is reporting that Green is hopeful of being fit to take the field when the Warriors play their first match of the NRL season on March 16 against the Bulldogs at Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium.
Even if Green is fit for the opening match, Warriors coach Stephen Kearney looks set to go through the trials without his young halves hopefuls getting the chance to form a combination with the only established playmaker in his squad.
Keighran, who has joined the Warriors from the Penrith Panthers, was named in the 2018 Intrust Super Premiership (ISP) New South Wales Team of the Year but spent most of the season playing in the centres.
Keighran’s goal kicking abilities add weight to the theory he should be the man to replace Johnson – who has the been the Warriors regular kicker since the departure of James Maloney in 2012.
Harris-tavita, 19, is highly thought of at the Warriors.
The club’s 2017 NYC player of the year was a strong performer for the Warriors ISP team in 2018.
Perham was also in the ISP side in 2018 but played exclusively at fullback.