Canterbury casualty ward grows with Sexton sweating scans

Canterbury’s injury woes continue to mount as Toby Sexton awaits scan results on a sternum injury ahead of a sudden-death showdown with Penrith.

Sexton suffered a knock to his chest late in last Friday’s loss to Melbourne and joins Viliame Kikau in sweating his availability with the Bulldogs season on the line. Kikau is awaiting scan results to confirm whether he suffered a facial fracture in the opening exchanges against the Storm, which the Fijian enforcer played on with after passing a HIA.

Canterbury will already be without skipper Stephen Crichton (ankle) and Enari Tuala against the Panthers, who is also awaiting a verdict on what is feared to be a minor fracture in his leg.

Sexton’s sternum issue adds a further headache to Cameron Ciraldo’s playmaking conundrum after the Catalans-bound half performed strongly once Crichton went down.

With Bronson Xerri slated to return from a concussion lay-off, Ciraldo can either keep Matt Burton and Lachlan Galvin in the halves, or shift Burton to centre for a Sexton-Galvin combination at the scrumbase.

Winger Marcelo Montoya (ankle) is also considered unlikely to be back against the Panthers, leaving the Bulldogs with few options across their backline beyond reserve winger Blake Wilson. Should Sexton be ruled out, out-of-favour hooker Reed Mahoney would come into contention for a bench recall.

Toby Sexton has his sternum injury examined against Melbourne.Credit: Getty Images

Penrith have reported a clean bill of health out of their win over the Warriors with Nathan Cleary handing goalkicking duties to Dylan Edwards due to a cork he picked up in the second half.

The club holds no concerns about Cleary backing up against Canterbury or being hampered at training throughout the week. Hooker Mitch Kenny is expected to return from a hamstring injury.

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