The St George Illawarra Dragons are set to be without inspirational skipper Cameron McInnes for up to 12 weeks after the full severity of his knee injury was confirmed on Tuesday.
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The hooker suffered an MCL injury to his left knee during the weekend's NRL Nines campaign in Perth, with doctors expecting McInnes to miss between six to 12 weeks.
While Dragons staff and fans are optimistic the recovery will sit at the shorter end of that range, medical personnel won't have a firmer timeline until later in the week, St George Illawarra head of high performance Nathan Pickworth said on Tuesday.
"Cam's suffered a medium to high grade MCL injury to his left knee," Pickworth said. "We were reviewing with the specialist yesterday with a few scans, typically the return to play time frame for this is anywhere between six and 12 weeks.
"The specifics of that time frame will be determined by how quickly the ligament tightens up. That will be reassessed later this week. Once we have an idea on how quickly his ligament is tightening up, we'll be able to get more specific about his return to play time frame."
McInnes was one of three male Dragons players injured on what was a successful weekend in Perth, the club taking out the women's competition and finishing second in the men's event.
Matt Dufty suffered a nasty fractured cheekbone in the semi-final victory over Parramatta, with Pickworth revealing the fullback underwent surgery on Monday night.
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"Duft copped a nasty fracture to his cheekbone putting his body on the line for us on the weekend, so it was a real shame to see him go down like that.
"He's had surgery last night to stabilise the fracture. Typically the return to play on these ones is about 4 weeks."
Pickworth had more positive news for Korbin Sims, the forward appearing to escape another fractured arm.
The club had initially feared Sims had re-broken the same arm he injured last year, however scans indicate there was no fracture.
"Korb seems to have dodged a bullet, his x-ray and CT have shown no new fractures.
"He's still quite sore, so he has an MRI scan today and a meeting with the specialist this afternoon. Once we've gone through those investigations we'll be able to determine the exact course of action and when he'll be back on the park."
The Dragons women were also unable to escape Perth unscathed, with Holli Wheeler rupturing her ACL in the side's opening game of the competition on Friday night.
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