Jeremiah Nanai suffers another potentially serious injury; Kurt Mann concussed

Cowboys and Maroons star Jeremiah Nanai may have suffered another serious injury in just his second game since returning from off-season shoulder surgery.

And the Bulldogs have a third representative forward in the injury ward after Maroons utility Kurt Mann was concussed in a heavy collision with Matt Lodge in Friday night's game, won by North Queensland 28-12.

Nanai turned out for his first game of the season in last week's shootout against the Sharks in Townsville, after recovering from a shoulder reconstruction he underwent after suffering an injury in the end-of-year Pacific Championships.

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In the 43rd minute of North Queensland's clash with Canterbury at Accor Stadium on Friday night, the boom back-rower slipped, stuck out his right arm in a tackle attempt on Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton, and injured the upper part of it.

Writhing in pain, he was assisted from the field by a trainer.

It's a potentially major blow for Billy Slater's Maroons. Nanai played in all three games of the 2025 series, won by Queensland in a Sydney decider. He is one of the most threatening back-rowers in the game and has a great nose for the try line.

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Mann copped a blow to the head when he went to tackle Lodge in the 36th minute of Friday night's game.

Lodge put his bumper bars up, collected Mann in the head and sent him jolting backwards into Sitili Tupouniua, who had also gone to tackle the Cowboys prop.

Mann was able to stand up unassisted, but was in a groggy state. Cowboys hooker Reed Mahoney, a former Bulldogs teammate of Mann's, held him up until a trainer arrived.

The 33-year-old Queenslander displayed category one symptoms and was therefore ruled out of the game.

He will miss next Thursday night's clash with the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium as per the NRL's mandatory 11-day stand-down policy.

Mann joins Fiji international Viliame Kikau (pectoral muscle) and NSW Origin forward Max King on the club's injury list.

The Cowboys piled on a flurry of points late. The scores were locked up at 12-12 after 65 minutes, before the visitors ran in three tries via Scott Drinkwater, Jake Clifford and Braidon Burns.

"It feels weird to say, but yes, for 60 minutes that looked like really our style of game," said Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.

"It wasn't perfect, but it was 12-all with 20 minutes left, and we were probably exactly where we wanted to be, and where we've prided ourselves on over the last couple of years. So yes, there will be a lot of positives that we'll look at from there.

"But very disappointing the way we finished. To let in three really soft tries is not good enough.

"We're in a bit of a spot at the moment. We're clearly a bit low on confidence."