Canberra Raiders five-eighth Blake Austin is hopeful he won't spend any time on the sidelines but remains confident the club can fill the void if he does.
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Austin could be facing a stint on the sidelines after he limped off the field with an ankle injury during a 24-16 loss to the Cronulla Sharks in front of 11047 at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.
Austin will undergo scans on Monday to assess the extent of the damage which could be a major blow to a resurgent Canberra outfit that is already without hulking prop Junior Paulo for up to 10 weeks.
"It's a bit early to tell much, it was touch and go. I thought it was one of those ones I might be able to run out but I just couldn't get much weight into it," Austin told Fairfax Media.
"Given that I thought I might be able to run it out, hopefully that's a decent sign but the scans will tell us all we need to know.
"I thought me and the team were building into the game alright, it's probably more frustration than anything having to come from the field, but that's footy.
"We've got guys that can cover it, they won't have a choice anyway. We'll just get our scan and we'll go from there."
Austin was assisted from the field midway through the first half after being bent back awkwardly while scoring a try, and his absence threw Ata Hingano into the firing line.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart took the blame for Hingano's inconsistent showing, with the Tongan product now in the frame for a starting spot alongside Sam Williams, who made his return from a knee injury in the NSW Cup the day before Canberra faced the Sharks.
"He was starting to play some really good footy. Having Blake go, we seem to lose a rhythm and a bit of fluency in attack," Stuart said.
"I feel sorry for Ata because I've been training him up as a utility nine player and he hasn't done a lot of work in the halves with us. It's probably my fault that we've been doing a lot of ruck work with him and he hasn't done a lot of work out of nine.
"We lost that little bit of rhythm in attack. As a little bit of frustration creeps in and lack of patience creeps in, then all of a sudden it's not your true game.
"We're a better team than that but for the fourth time this year we've shot ourselves in the foot in regards to winning the game."
A win would have put the Raiders into the top eight, but instead it was the most inexperienced Sharks outfit in almost four years that walked away with the prized position.
The visitors were dealt an early blow when Paul Gallen was ruled out, and his absence meant Andrew Fifita was leading the most inexperienced Sharks outfit since round 26, 2014.
Fifita was enormous for the visitors with a stunning 80-minute effort laying the platform for a courageous victory in the absence of stars Gallen, Luke Lewis and Josh Dugan.
The Sharks have won six straight games in Canberra. They haven't lost a game in the capital since the 2012 finals series and Raiders captain Jarrod Croker says Canberra have themselves to blame after blowing an eight-point lead.
"We did a lot of things that kept them in the game," Croker said.
"A lot of penalties, a couple of last tackle options, we were probably overplaying our hand a little bit and getting a little bit excited."
AT A GLANCE
NRL round 10 - CRONULLA SHARKS 24 (Valentine Holmes 2, Jack Williams, Sosaia Feki tries; Chad Townsend 4 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 16 (Nick Cotric, Blake Austin tries; Jarrod Croker 4 goals) at Canberra Stadium. Crowd: 11047.
