Stephen Crichton’s season is over. Now there are concerns for another top Dog

8 hours ago 3

Stephen Crichton’s season is over, while Canterbury are now sweating on scans on Viliame Kikau’s eye socket as the club’s finals campaign hangs by a thread.

Crichton came from the field midway through the first half of Friday night’s 26-18 loss to Melbourne after suffering an ankle injury, and was wearing a moon boot and using crutches at Sydney airport on Saturday.

The sight of Kikau with a swollen and bruised right eye on Saturday was even more concerning for Bulldogs fans hoping their barnstorming back-rower will be fit for next weekend’s semi-final in front of an anticipated 70,000-plus fans at Accor Stadium.

Kikau passed a head injury assessment and completed the game against the Storm after copping an accidental elbow to the eye, but it was always going to be a case of how he pulled up the following day.

Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo, who also lost centre Enari Tuala to a calf injury, is managing a growing casualty ward at the worst time of year.

He knew Crichton’s injury was serious when he had to come from the field.

Viliame Kikau returns to Sydney with a swollen right eye

“Stephen is so tough, and when he can’t finish a game, it’s not great,” Ciraldo said. “We’ll lose his leadership and the attacking threat he brings, but we do get Bronson [Xerri] back in the team.

“What we lose with ‘Critta’s’ [Crichton] leadership, I’m sure he’s passed on a lot of that the last two years, and we’ll need guys to step up.”

Pressed on whether there were fears Crichton had suffered a syndesmosis injury, Ciraldo said: “That’s what we think.”

In all likelihood, the right centre will not play again this season, while he could also miss the Pacific Championships with Samoa.

Stephen Crichton returns to Sydney on Saturday in a moon boot.

The other headache for Ciraldo is the halves. Toby Sexton, who returned from exile to play a leading role on Friday night, and Lachie Galvin – the man who replaced him in the No.7 jumper – could be paired in the halves, with Matt Burton shifted to the centres. That is how Canterbury played the last hour against the Storm on Friday.

That could open the door for another discard, Reed Mahoney, to return to the bench. With no back-up dummy half on Friday, Bailey Hayward was forced to make 50 tackles, plus a dozen missed tackles.

“We just need to find 17 fit players to start with,” Ciraldo said. “I thought [Sexton] he did great when he came on and made an immediate impact.

“There were some lessons there in the second half around our cohesion and the way we went about things.

“I think Toby is naturally a good communicator and brings that with him. He plugs into our system. We have a system we believe in and we trust.

“Whether Toby comes in or anyone else, they all believe in it and all trust in it, and we’ll get our system on.

“The good thing is we gave ourselves a chance in the end – we were throwing punches right until the death.”

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