Brisbane, Gold Coast suffer more injury carnage

The Titans are worst hit with No.6 AJ Brimson and winger Phil Sami (hamstring) both set to miss at least a month.

Captain Kieran Foran (hamstring) will miss at least a week. In some good news though, outside back Harley Smith-Shields (pectoral) saw a surgeon on Tuesday and the Titans subsequently announced he had not suffered a season-ending full rupture as coach Des Hasler initially feared.

"Smith-Shields is expected to avoid surgery and will only miss six weeks with a pec strain," the Titans said in a statement.

The injuries were all suffered in the 20-18 win over North Queensland on Sunday and all four will miss the clash with Newcastle for which coach Des Hasler has named hookers Chris Randall and Sam Verrills in the halves.

The Broncos, meanwhile, have lost hooker Billy Walters to a wrist injury for Friday night's clash with Manly. That has allowed 20-year-old Blake Mozer to come on the bench and Tyson Smoothy to start.

Of more concern are the injuries to top-30 squad members, prop Ben Te Kura and fullback Tristan Sailor.

"Ben suffered a serious injury to his Lisfranc joint while playing for South Logan Magpies in the (Queensland) Cup over the weekend and will require surgery in the next few days," head of performance Dave Ballard said.

"He will need at least four months of recovery time.

"Tristan will miss four to six weeks with a high ankle sprain picked up playing for Souths-Logan in the same game as Ben. He will have surgery this week and move into his rehab program once the injury settles down."

Both players were slated to play for the Broncos during State of Origin when Payne Haas, Pat Carrigan, Reece Walsh and Selwyn Cobbo are certainties to be absent.

The injury to Walters is short-term.

"Billy picked up a wrist ligament strain against the Tigers a few weeks ago and then copped a knock on it against the Eels on Friday night," Ballard said.

"He is recovering well but we will take a conservative approach and he will sit out this week. He is a chance to play next week."

Prop Corey Jensen said the Broncos just had to deal with it.

"Last year we probably had a great run and had a lot of continuity there with the same 17 week in and week out but there are a whole lot of injuries going through the whole NRL," he said.

"We have got a next-man-up mentality here at the Broncos and everyone that comes in knows their role. If everyone is playing their role, we give ourselves every chance of winning."

Australian Associated Press