The Bulldogs will be sweating on the half of Stephen Crichton after the star centre and captain left the Good Friday loss to South Sydney in the second half with a shoulder injury.
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Crichton struggled to his feet trying to play the ball in the 43rd minute before being tended to by a trainer, with replays showing he landed awkwardly in a tackle involving Jack Wighton and Campbell Graham.
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The representative centre was visibly in pain and eventually came from the field, with Fox League’s Jake Duke later reporting on the sideline it was an AC joint issue for Crichton.
Crichton was later ruled out of the game and will undergo scans on Saturday, with coach Cameron Cirado telling reporters it “doesn’t look great” and that early indications are it is a high grade two or grade three AC joint injury.
It means the Bulldogs will likely be without their skipper “for a while”.
In a peculiar call, Ciraldo decided to inject Sean O’Sullivan into the contest instead of using centre Bronson Xerri as a direct replacement.
“Are you not baffled by that?” Fox League’s Andrew Voss said in commentary.
“I find it very strange now that Bronson Xerri, a readymade left centre who had been part of the side all year last year, wasn’t thrown on and they kept Matt Burton on at five-eighth,” added Panthers legend Greg Alexander.
“I’m a fan of Sean O’Sullivan… however, if a centre goes down why would you have Bronson Xerri on the bench at all?”
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Crichton Off with suspected AC injury | 00:39
Interestingly, when asked pre-game by Duke how he planned to use Xerri, Ciraldo said he would “cover outside backs”.
When pressed on why Xerri didn’t play in his post-game press conference, Crichton said there was a consideration to throw him out there but that when “you lose your best communicator, I needed to get another communicator out there”.
“And Sean’s one of the best at that,” he added.
The question, of course, for the Bulldogs is why their best communicator is a centre and speaks to the broader concerns about the lack of a clear, organiser in the halves.
Xerri, of course, was dropped to NSW Cup earlier in the year after the Bulldogs’ win over the Dragons in Las Vegas and then was subsequently reported to have demanded a release from the club.
Baffling spine call exposed in Dogs loss | 07:44
While a forced change, it was not the first time the Bulldogs had brought O’Sullivan into the game and shifted Matt Burton to the centres, having done so last week against Newcastle.
That was more of an experiment than a permanent move, as was prompted by the Crichton injury, with Ciraldo explaining post-game that he thought the team looked “more dangerous” with Burton at centre and Crichton roaming out of the back of attacking shapes in the halves.
Latrell stuns with INSANE pickup for try | 00:42
“We need Critta (Crichton) getting the ball in his hands. So we needed him to get in and be closer to the action and try to manage the energy of both Burto (Burton) and Critta,” Ciraldo said after the Newcastle loss.
“I thought he showed some great signs, when he got closer to the action and got the ball in his hands and we looked a bit more dangerous there.”
Crichton, meanwhile, said he enjoyed the change but added there was some onus on him to get closer to the action and not wait for Ciraldo’s instruction to get his hands on the ball.
