The Canberra Raiders have suffered a double injury blow with prop Shannon Boyd and winger Sisa Waqa ruled out of Sunday's clash against the Roosters in Sydney.
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Prop Mark Nicholls will play his first NRL game in just over two years in place of Boyd, who has pulled out with a shoulder AC joint issue first suffered two months ago at training.
Melbourne Storm recruit Waqa has failed to overcome a knee issue that forced him to leave the field in the second half of last week's loss to St George Illawarra.
Winger Jeremy Hawkins has replaced him after making a timely return from a one-week suspension.
It's the last thing Canberra needs before taking on a Roosters side boasting 11 players who have represented their state and country, including their entire back line.
In contrast, the Raiders only have four, and coach Ricky Stuart said the Roosters were a benchmark the rebuilding Raiders were working towards.
"It's a huge blow losing those two players," Stuart said. "It's a real benchmark laying against this [Roosters] roster and it'll show where we're at.
"When you look at this type of footy team, that's where we have to get to if we are to be a top four football team.
"That's why I keep saying we have to keep developing our own representative players, and have to keep recruiting good players.
"We're up for the challenge, we've had a really good training week. it's a good opportunity to see where we're at."
Nicholls, Canberra's 2012 rookie of the year, has been languishing in the NRL wildnerness since he played the last of his 14 NRL games in 2013 - 743 days ago.
He has been playing strongly in NSW Cup for Mounties, and has his just reward after confiding in Stuart during pre-season on what he needed to do to return to first grade. Nicholls is off contract at the Raiders at the end of the year.
"Boydy's a big loss when you lose the size and impact he creates around the middle, but it's an opportunity for Mark to show us what he's got at the first grade level," Stuart said.
"Boyd's had a niggle there for about eight weeks, it was a training problem and it got a bit worse.
"I don't know [how long he will be out], this early in the season I don't want to rush it and aggravate it."
It is the last thing the Raiders need as they look to rebound from the fadeout to the Dragons, where they blew an early 18-0 lead.
Canberra has a poor record at Sydney Football Stadium, winning just three of their past 25 games there, and one of the past 15 against the Roosters.
