Flanagan ponders selection shake-up as Bird faces stint on the sidelines

Tentative estimates suggest he's looking at a 4-6 weeks out, but his absence may be one of many changes ahead of next week's clash with Penrith, with coach Shane Flanagan to consider overhauling his 17 in the wake of a 44-16 loss to the Bulldogs.

Bird was left howling in pain when he rolled his left ankle attempting a tackle on Bronson Xerri moments before halftime. He was medicabbed from the sideline and left for hospital before fulltime amid fears his injury curse had struck again.

Mercifully, scans on Friday revealed the 29-year-old did not suffer a fracture, but further specialist consultation will be required to determine a return-to-play time-frame beyond tentative suggestions of 4-6 weeks.

The news was not so good for prop Hame Sele, who left Thursday's match in the 15^th minute with a shoulder injury and didn't return. Scans confirmed the 27-year-old suffered a fracture, leaving him facing an indefinite period on the sideline.

It comes as Flanagan is certain to lose skipper Ben Hunt to Origin duty, and possibly Jaydn Su'A, though he bluntly declared "we've got bigger problems than just losing Ben" in the wake of the heavy defeat.

Asked if he'd need to consider swinging the axe after a diabolical second 40 minutes, he was equally frank.

"Without a doubt," he said.

"There's a few kids there that played well in second grade so we'll be looking at that for sure. If you keep getting these results, and you keep picking the same side, they'll find a new coach."

Whether new faces can arrest the worrying trend of second-half fade-outs remains to be seen, but Flanagan conceded something needed to change, perhaps even his own approach, after surrendering a 12-6 halftime lead to go down by 28 points.

"If I could put my finger on exactly [what the issue is] I'd fix it," Flanagan said.

"It's a tricky one. There's a number of different things that I'm thinking about why. Maybe we're pushing the limits and I'm squeezing the lemon there on a couple of them, I'm not quite sure.

"You can't do it in one half and not do it in the other half. It's probably something that we've got to work on. I can't put my finger exactly on it. We'll just have to work harder.

"The frustrating thing was what we did in the first half, we controlled the game, played it our way, and then it was just a complete 360 in the second half. We have to address what happened in the second half.

"The two halves were just so different. I thought, if we continued to do what we did in the first half we'd win the football game. Credit to them, they did exactly what we did to them in the first half.

"Possession killed us. Then when we did finally get possession, we turned it over or gave penalties away. We were our own worst enemy."

Bird had appeared to be showing benefits of an unbroken stint at centre, but Flanagan will have multiple options to consider, the most obvious being Zac Lomax - provided he's not selected for NSW - shifting back to the centres with Christian Tuipulotu returning on the flank.

Max Feagai could also be considered for an NRL recall, while highly touted youngster Savelio Tamale could also come into the frame for a debut. Both are off-contract this season and would relish a top-grade opportunity.

Fellow young-gun Sione Finau, whose debut last year was cruelly cut short by injury, also bagged a hat-trick in a 28-12 NSW Cup win over the Bulldogs on Thursday to warrant consideration for a top-grade wing spot.

Either way, Flanagan said he had to feel for Bird given his well-documented injury history.

"He was playing really good too," Flanagan said.

"It was a big job out there on that edge for him in that first half on (Viliame) Kikau and I thought he did a really good job. It was unfortunate for him but, touch wood, it's not too bad.

"When you lose a centre it is hard and that's probably where [the Bulldogs] strike is, out on the edges. We struggled there a little bit and they scored some tries late in the second half in and around those areas.

"Hame was a big one as well, we were down to 15, but that's football. You've just got to be able to handle it."