The Raiders will be without representative centre Joel Monaghan for tonight's Canberra Stadium clash with St George Illawarra, but winger Daniel Vidot has been cleared to play after overcoming a calf strain.
Monaghan has bone bruising on his left knee and failed to complete yesterday's final training session.
Rookie Joel Thompson will take his place in the centres with either Tom Learoyd-Lahrs or Joe Picker set to start in the back row.
Monaghan suffered the injury when he hyper-extended his knee against the Broncos a fortnight ago.
He lasted just 23 minutes against the Bulldogs last week, after a pain-killing injection made his leg go numb.
Thompson replaced Monaghan in that game and scored a brilliant second-half try to get his team back into the contest.
Vidot's calf was heavily strapped yesterday and Brett Kelly joined training on standby.
But the 19-year-old trained strongly to shore up his place in the team.
Coach David Furner said the Raiders needed to start far better than they did against the Bulldogs if they wanted to stretch the Dragons' losing streak at Canberra Stadium to seven games.
''Last week our first half wasn't up to our standard,'' Furner said.
For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times
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