Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has overhauled his backline due to form and injury, with winger Jordan Rapana (calf) also set to miss the clash against St George Illawarra at Canberra Stadium on Friday night.

It sees both Michael Oldfield and Bailey Simonsson come onto the Raiders right edge, with Nick Cotric staying at left wing.

Scott was the utility on the bench, with Stuart wanting to show faith with his star recruit.

Joe Tapine has returned from a slight knee injury to take the No.13 jersey from the injured Corey Horsburgh.

In a further blow to the Green Machine, Horsburgh's expected to miss the remainder of the 2020 NRL season following surgery on the Lisfranc injury in his foot on Tuesday.

Hudson Young retains his spot in the second row after impressing in the first half against the Parramatta Eels.

Stuart felt Scott's form during the opening three rounds of the season showed the off-field drama wasn't a factor in Scott's form slump.

Scott's court case for allegedly assaulting a police officer will drag on until the end of the year.

"I'll be keeping Bailey and 'Oldie' there on the right, Nick will stay on the left," Stuart said.

"It's unfortunate for Curtis at the moment, but he's just out of a little bit of form and I think that's more through confidence.

"The first three games where I had that right edge with Curtis and George [Williams] we found some really good form, and they were building some great confidence.

"But we just fell out of shape a little bit, fell out of sorts.

"He's on the bench for a reason - to regain a little bit of confidence ... and I want to show him he's got the support of the players and the staff."

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Horsburgh was initially diagnosed as missing 12 weeks due to the foot injury he suffered against the Eels.

That would see him out until round 19 - the penultimate round of the regular season.

It looks like it could take longer than that after he had surgery on Tuesday.

Stuart felt semi-finals could be a best-case scenario.

"Personally I think it will be the season for Corey. A good result's 12 weeks," he said.

"I'm hinting that he probably won't be back at all this season, but best-case scenario is he might come back and play semi-final football.

"Our job is to make the eight and hopefully he has a little bit of success in rehabilitation and he gets back a little bit earlier."

Stuart praised the tweak to the new six-again rule, with NRL referees now allowed to use the call if markers are not square or break early.

"I'm glad they picked it up, put it that way. I'm glad [NRL head of football Graham Annesley] has seen that and his referees have identified it because we were getting markers come back 5-7 metres and basically being in an offside position and helping the middle of the ruck," he said.

"That's a little bit more work for the refs ... but they're doing a good job of it at the moment."

NRL ROUND EIGHT

Friday: Canberra Raiders v St George Illawarra Dragons at Canberra Stadium, 6pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Bailey Simonsson, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Michael Oldfield, 5. Nick Cotric, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. George Williams, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson (c), 10. Sia Soliola, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Joe Tapine. Interchange: 14. Curtis Scott, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Ryan Sutton, 17. Siliva Havili. Reserves: 18. Tom Starling, 19. Dunamis Lui, 20. Matt Frawley, 21. Kai O'Donnell.

Dragons squad: 1. Matthew Dufty, 2. Jason Saab, 3. Euan Aitken, 4. Zac Lomax, 5. Mikaele Ravalawa, 6. Corey Norman, 7. Adam Clune, 8. Blake Lawrie, 9. Cameron McInnes, 10. Paul Vaughan, 11. Tyson Frizell, 12. Tyrell Fuimaono, 13. Trent Merrin. Interchange: 14. Ben Hunt, 15. Josh Kerr, 16. Korbin Sims, 17. Jackson Ford. Reserves: 18. Eddie Blacker, 19. Tristan Sailor, 20. Billy Brittain, 21. Tim Lafai.