CRAIG WING's homecoming to South Sydney is in tatters with scans revealing the worst: that he will require surgery on his left shoulder and his season could be over.
Wing will consult two specialists today to learn precisely how long he will be sidelined but he told the Herald last night he had been advised "it will be three to five months". "I'm shattered," he said. "The best case scenario was that I wouldn't require surgery and I'd be back in six to eight weeks. Now I know that I do, it's three to five months. I'll know more tomorrow but I'm gutted."
Wing left the field with a dislocated shoulder in the eighth minute of his side's 34-20 loss to the Roosters on Friday night and debate continues to rage about whether the Riley Brown tackle that caused it was illegal.
The NRL's match review committee will today scrutinise the incident to determine whether a charge should be laid against the Roosters hooker - although it is unlikely.
Souths director of athletic performance Errol Alcott said Wing had suffered labral, ligament and muscle tearing around the shoulder joint.
"It's not your garden variety dislocation," he said. "We're not going to speculate on how long it's going to be … but the outcome from the scans today is that surgery is imminent."
Wing revealed he did not believe the tackle that has cruelled his first season back at Redfern in eight years should be outlawed.
In yesterday's Sun-Herald, Broncos coach Wayne Bennett demanded the NRL end the practice of players being held up in tackles before a third "prowling" player comes charging in.
The Bulldogs are unhappy about a gang-tackle that injured the right knee of Sonny Bill Williams in their loss to the Eels on Saturday night.
"You could make a rule but then how do you police it?" asked Wing, who is yet to see a replay of the tackle. "Sometimes it's a good tackle but sometimes it can go horribly wrong. How do you make a call on something like that?
"If it's a solid tackle and someone drives him back and you get a guy going back two or three metres, that's a great tackle. Especially on a kick-chase. But then, like what happened to Luke O'Donnell or the one to me, people can get caught in the wrong position. What do you do? I honestly have no idea. There have been so many changes to the rules already."
Under changes made during the off-season, referees have been instructed to show less tolerance to defenders holding an opponent upright in a tackle to slow the play-the-ball but there is no provision for the match review committee to take action over such incidents.
O'Donnell, the North Queensland back-rower whose 2007 season was ended in an incident that has been compared to the Wing tackle, was also unsure whether the rules should change.
"You'd rather not see someone injured like that but when you've got a player who is going to stand in the line and try to offload then someone has got to come in and put him on the ground," said O'Donnell, whose hamstring was badly torn after two Wests Tigers defenders wish-boned him.
