The St George Illawarra Dragons are confident Jordan Pereira will make a full recovery after the winger was cleared of serious injury.
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The 26-year-old was taken to hospital after he landed on his head as he flipped over after scoring a try in the Dragons Canterbury Cup loss to Newtown on Saturday.
There he underwent scans, which have cleared him of a spinal fracture. While still experiencing some discomfort, Pereira is back walking and, having returned to full mobility, he was discharged from hospital on Monday night.
St George Illawarra head of athletic performance Nathan Pickworth said the winger suffered an injury to his brachial plexus, the nerve group that supplies function and sensation to the arm.
"Jordan was released from hospital last night (Monday)," Pickworth said. "Over the past couple of days, he's had a series of scans on his neck as well as his upper limb and he's been cleared of any serious neck injury.
"He's back home now, he's out of the neck brace and he's moving around okay at the moment."
While not common, injuries to the brachial plexus can be extremely severe. It's the injury that ended former Wests Tigers forward Simon Dwyer's promising NRL career, while former Wallaby Rob Horne was also forced into retirement after suffering damage to his brachial plexus.
Pereira has managed to avoid that fate, with Pickworth confident the New Zealand-born winger will make a full recovery over the coming weeks.
"At this stage we'll be resting him up, assessing him day-to-day and as his symptoms start to clear, we'll have a better gauge on when his return to play will be.
"It's really good news that he's been cleared of anything serious in his neck, and we're optimistic at this stage that he'll make a full recovery."
The incident was described as sickening by his Dragons teammates, with Darren Nicholls, who was watching from the sideline, saying on Monday that the elation of Pereira's four-pointer was very quickly replaced by concern as he lay motionless.
Video of the incident was uploaded to social media by Wendell Sailor, the former international watching his son Tristan play for St George Illawarra, with many in the rugby league community expressing concern for the New-Zealand born winger.
The news came as the Dragons named their squad for Sunday's clash with the Raiders. Tariq Sims returns from suspension, while Corey Norman has been named at five-eighth, with fellow Origin stars Ben Hunt, Tyson Frizell and Paul Vaughan listed in the reserves.
Also in the reserves are James Graham, who could make an early return from injury, and uncapped rookies Jason Saab and Sailor.
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