Warriors on alert after star goes down with nasty shoulder concern

The Warriors will be sweating on the scans of Dallin Watene-Zelezniak after he went down with a shoulder concern in the side’s 45-26 win over the Rabbitohs.

The visitors were leading 26-8 in the early minutes of the second half and looked to score via their winger in the corner, but as Watene-Zelezniak came down to ground the ball he landed heavily on his right shoulder.

It was clear to all as soon as he had grounded the ball that his shoulder was not OK. He immediately signalled he would be departing the field.

Watene-Zelezniak kept his shoulder still as he high-fived nearby teammates with his left hand and spoke with team medics on the sidelines.

“I think he hurt that left shoulder in the first half when he got ankle tapped and (again) now,” Greg Alexander said in commentary on Fox League.

While Watene-Zelzniak was focused on the pain in his shoulder, the Bunker analysed his grounding of the ball as a replay appeared to show he had bobbled it.

But the try was cleared and awarded, bringing the Warriors to a 32-8 lead.

Read more

Knights cop blow before finals with two stars suspended

Coach Andrew Webster then called for Adam Pompey to move to the wing in place of the injured Watene-Zelzniak while Eddie Ieremia-Toeava came into the centres.

Webster confirmed that medics believe Watene-Zelzniak has suffered an AC joint injury or a collarbone concern.

Mitch Barnett joked on Fox League post-match that he would have been able to push through the pain that his injured winger endured early in the half.

“If it was me, I’d probably play next week, but I don’t know how long he’ll be out for,” he laughed.

But South Sydney took advantage of the structural changes the Warriors were still trying to adapt to in the absence of Watene-Zelezniak and found the chance to send Duncan, Alex Johnston and Cody Walker over to turn the game on its head.

Despite a resilient comeback display, the Warriors held on and fired two more tries on the scoreboard via Jacob Laban and Alofiana Khan-Pereira.

Luke Hanson, playing in his second-ever NRL game, sealed the result with a field goal.

Earlier, a short ball by Wayde Egan into James Fisher-Harris marked the start of the Warriors’ try-scoring blitz, with the team captain crashing over in the 7th minute.

Leka Halasima followed just three minutes later before the Rabbitohs eventually found their groove and sent Jack Wighton over to halt the Warriors’ momentum.

Barnett scored his first try of season in the 20th minute. Johnston and Chanel Harris-Tavita then traded tries to finish off the first half.