Will shattered Dragons finish with wooden spoon?

A cursed St George Illawarra will limp through the final four rounds of the season without their two most influential weapons as the Dragons' injury plight borders on their worst in a decade.

State Of Origin stars Josh Dugan (thumb) and Trent Merrin (knee) are the latest additions to the casualty ward, which threatens to rob the Red V of 935 games of NRL experience for Cronulla's visit to WIN Stadium on Saturday night.

Dugan was diagnosed with a broken thumb, and will meet with specialists for surgery tomorrow.

He tweeted earlier yesterday: "Devastated! There's a break. Find out later ... whether I require surgery or not looking at 3-5 weeks in recovery mode."

Full coverage of the NRL

Merrin hobbled from the field late in the Dragons' two-point loss to Brisbane on Sunday with medial ligament damage in his knee.

He will be sidelined for the rest of the season, damaging any late push for the World Cup squad.

The pair join a long-term list which already includes Matt Cooper (pectoral), Dan Hunt (knee), Gerard Beale (knee), Kyle Stanley (knee) and mid-season recruit Harry Siejka (knee).

All are sidelined for the rest of the season.

Chase Stanley (quadricep), Bronson Harrison (knee), Cameron King (shoulder) and Charly Runciman (hamstring) were also unavailable for the trip to Suncorp Stadium.

When pressed on whether it was the club's worst injury toll in his time at St George Illawarra, Dragons high performance director Andrew Gray said: "We've had a couple of other years that have probably gone close to this. I think 2007 was pretty bad and 2004, at stages, was pretty bad too.

"We've got a lot of collision injuries this year - broken hands, broken thumbs, knee ligaments, shoulder injuries, Matt Cooper's pec which is a bit of a freak injury.

"A lot gets said about collision injuries, but there's not a lot you can do about them. From my experience you tend to get a lot of those when you're on the back foot in games.

"The years when you're winning more than losing you don't tend to get a lot of them."

The rotten run with injuries hasn't just been confined to the 2013 squad, with Wollongong-bound Gareth Widdop dislocating his hip after inking a four-year deal with the club.

Sam Williams has also spent time on the sidelines with an ankle injury after committing his future to the Red V, while Dylan Farrell was knocked out in the Rabbitohs' loss to Melbourne on Friday night.

Gray said he had spoken to Widdop about his recovery, but wouldn't take a hands-on role in his rehabilitation until he became a Dragons-contracted player from November 1.

"In theory we can't do a great deal about it," he said. "I have been in touch with Gareth and I will have more discussions with him over the next few months, but it's up to the Melbourne Storm to decide how they look after Gareth.

"We can't really intervene there and we won't because we wouldn't like it if another club did that to a player we still had on contract."

Widdop is intent on being fit to spearhead England's assault on the end-of-season World Cup.

There was some brighter news for the Dragons after Gray revealed injury-riddled utility Kyle Stanley had ramped up his recovery from a fourth knee reconstruction.

"Kyle has just started running and he's looking fantastic," Gray said. "We've taken Gerard [Beale] a little bit slower because he had a lot of damage from his really high-force collision injury. They're both looking great and they will be ready to go next season."