Jordan Pereira's St George Illawarra teammates have expressed their support for the winger after he was injured on Saturday afternoon.
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The winger remains in hospital undergoing scans after he landed on his head in a sickening incident that occurred when Pereira was scoring a try during the Dragons Canterbury Cup loss to Newtown on Saturday.
Pereira's teammate Darren Nicholls was watching from the sideline on Saturday, having played in the NRL team's two-point loss to Melbourne on Thursday night, and the 30-year-old said the elation that came when Pereira grounded the ball was very quickly replaced with worry.
"I felt a little bit sick," Nicholls said. "Everyone in the squad was really worried about Jordan, it's not good to see.
"It was a great finish, he jumped from the field, left hand in the left corner, but it was just unfortunate the position he landed in.
"It went from a great finish of a try to 'Shit, he's not getting back up.' When the stretcher was taken out there, it was very worrying. Sometimes if you land in that position, it can be all sweet, but sometimes not so good."
The injury was suffered when Pereira did what most wingers do in rugby league matches across the country every week, he launched himself into the air in a desperate attempt to score.
It's an act that NRL wingers have seemingly perfected, though with defenders flying in to prevent the try being scored, there is very little margin for error.
Despite the risk of injury, St George Illawarra centre Euan Aitken said wingers are too committed to scoring to stop attempting such spectacular dives.
"It's one of those things you just go for it in the moment," Aitken said. "If you hesitate it's lost.
"I don't think it's going to change too much, it's an exciting aspect of the game the way wingers put the ball down in the corner in limited space.
"Obviously defences are going to try to stop it, but the wingers seem to score those tries more often than not."
Aitken's comments come as the Dragons attempt to rebound from another tight loss on Thursday night. The defeat was St George Illawarra's ninth of the year in what has been a challenging season for the club.
Despite their struggles, the side remains just two points outside the top eight with nine games remaining.
While he would much prefer his side be sitting comfortably inside the eight, Aitken is confident St George Illawarra can string together the wins required to make the finals.
"I'm disappointed with where we are. We feel like we've got a better team than the position we're sitting on the ladder.
"There's plenty of games to go and I've got faith in this team to push for a finals spot. We need to win six from nine, it might seem a bit of a crazy number, but it's not when the confidence builds and you get a couple of wins together.
"That's all we need, a couple of wins together, it will be good for our team and there's a few personnel that's going to come back."
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