Elliott Whitehead ruled out of Canberra Raiders' crunch New Zealand Warriors clash

Whitehead was named in the second row - a week after he underwent plastic surgery for a horrific head clash - but he was ruled out after the captain's run on Friday.

It means Adam Elliott will come into the second row, with Harry Rushton coming onto the bench for his second NRL game.

It will be just the seventh game Whitehead's missed in seven seasons with the Green Machine.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart didn't sound fully confident Whitehead was going to be ready for the Warriors when he spoke before the captain's run.

It shows how brutal the blow the 32-year-old suffered when he clashed heads with teammate Ata Mariota at training last week.

Stuart said all the Englishman he'd worked with had been similarly tough.

"With Elliott it was a very sickening blow," he said.

"He's a typical Englishman. All the English boys that I've coached - the guys that I've coached at the Roosters in Adrian Morley - they're unforgivingly tough.

"That's what makes them so successful in our game. You wouldn't have seen many Englishman come to Australia to play in the NRL and their teammates not enjoy playing with that style of play, that toughness."

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Whitehead's absence couldn't come at a worse time for the 15^th-placed Raiders, who were desperate to halt their four-game losing streak.

They face a wounded Warriors outfit that was humiliated with a 60-point drubbing by the Melbourne Storm last weekend.

Stuart said it was a massive clash for them - as was next week's game against the bottom-placed Canterbury Bulldogs.

But his focus was solely on the Warriors, who he said would be much better than they were against the Storm.

Both teams were completely outgunned in their respective second halves last weekend - Penrith scored 22 unanswered points against the Green Machine, while the Storm piled on 54 without a Warriors response.

Stuart refused to play down the significance of the game for the Raiders.

"Obviously you can fob that question off, but it is very important," Stuart said.

"I'm not looking at the next two weeks. I've just got to look at this game coming up because that's the important one.

"It would be the same thing for [Warriors coach Nathan Brown].

"It is only early in the competition. It's still very congested around 70 per cent of the table, but you can only look after your own backyard and it's important for us to start winning."

Stuart has been turning to his two enforcers Josh Papalii and Joe Tapine to produce two first-half stints.

Over the past three weeks one of the pair has returned to the field before half-time for their second stint - initially it was Tapine against the Storm and North Queensland, and then Papalii against Penrith.

The Raiders mentor said he wanted to have at least one of his power props on the ground, but has challenged his bench forwards to produce a similar impact.

"I'll continue to do it while it's working, but it was important to have one of those boys on the field," Stuart said.

"But I feel as though our bench on the weekend came on and substituted Joe and Papa well and that's what I'm asking for - the interchange players to come on and be a point of difference, to sustain or increase the intensity of our game.

"That's their job. When they're doing that I don't need to rely on Josh and Taps.

"I can't rely on them all year. Everybody needs to do their role and do it at a very high standard."

NRL ROUND EIGHT

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v New Zealand Warriors at Redcliffe, 3pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Jordan Rapana, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Semi Valemei, 5. Xavier Savage, 6. Jack Wighton (c), 7. Brad Schneider, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Tom Starling, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 16. Adam Elliott, 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange: 14. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 15. Corey Harawira-Naera, 17. Corey Horsburgh, 18. Harry Rushton. Reserves: 19. Matt Frawley, 22. Trey Mooney.

Warriors squad: 1. Reece Walsh, 2. Rocco Berry, 3. Jesse Arthars, 4. Adam Pompey, 5. Viliami Vailea, 21. Daejarn Asi, 7. Shaun Johnson, 8. Addin Fonua-Blake, 9. Wayde Egan, 10. Matt Lodge, 11. Euan Aitken, 12. Bayley Sironen, 13. Jazz Tevaga. Interchange: 14. Taniela Otukolo, 15. Bunty Afoa, 16. Eliesa Katoa, 17. Jack Murchie. Reserves: 18. Edward Kosi, 20. Ben Murdoch-Masila.

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