INJURIES GALORE

TITAN’S COACH PLAYER ROSTER HEADACHE

GOLD Coast coach Garth Brennan has called for a shake-up to the NRL’s injury guidelines, proposing an 18th man to cover for teams impacted by mutliple concussions in a game.

The Titans’ injury woes continued against the Cowboys at the weekend, losing fullback Michael Gordon to a failed Head Injury Assessment (HIA) in the third minute and halfback Tyrone Roberts to a head knock in the 70th.

Winger Phillip Sami was in visible distress throughout the match with a suspected ankle injury but was unable to leave the field due to a lack of substitutes left on the bench.

It comes after Gold Coast lost former skipper Ryan James (knee) for the season, halfback Ash Taylor (knee and quadriceps) and super-sub AJ Brimson (thumb).

Brennan said the onslaught of injuries cruelled their chances of making the top eight.

He has now called for the NRL to look at implementing an 18th man replacement rule for sides who suffer more than one failed HIA.

“Injuries like that, a head knock, you can’t prepare for,” he said.

“You can’t train to prevent them from happening.

“We play probably the most brutal sport in the world and there are going to be some impact injuries.

“That raises the question about when you lose players to

head knocks whether we have an 18th man on the sideline to replace that.

“We have to look after our players and we can’t force them to stay out there when they’ve had a head knock.”

He said players who had been sidelined due to a failed HIA put pressure on others.

“It really hurts when you lose one but then when you lose two, it puts a lot of strain on the other players,” Brennan said. “It forces other players, like Phillip Sami (on Friday night) who was carrying an injury, to stay out there when you would otherwise get them out of there.

“We need to protect them and look after them a bit better. It’s something the game should look at. We want to protect our players.”

LOST TITANS: Thursday