'Worst they've seen': Corey Oates injury leaves NRL horrified
Brisbane's Corey Oates is set for a stint on the sidelines after suffering a nasty injury in the Broncos latest chastening defeat.
The Broncos' embarrassing season sunk to a new low, with a ruthless Wests Tigers battering the Broncos in a record-breaking nine-try romp.
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Tigers duo Luciano Leilua and Luke Garner bagged two each, while five of their teammates also scored in the 48-0 thrashing on Friday night.
The blowout margin easily eclipsed the Tigers' previous biggest win over the Broncos - a 34-6 semi-final rout on route to their 2005 premiership.
The horror loss for Brisbane was made even worse by a leg injury to Oates, who was sent straight to hospital.
GRAPHIC:
Significant concern for femur fracture (upper leg bone) for Corey Oates, left leg gets caught in tackle. Rare injury in sport as requires such a high force, more commonly seen in motor vehicle accidents. Fingers crossed for Oates but doesn’t look good #NRLTigersBroncos pic.twitter.com/MWpqtoKlEw— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) July 17, 2020
Oates suffered the injury after twisting his leg awkwardly in a tackle.
Fox Sports' Hannah Hollis reported that staff said it in terms of injuries it was "the worst thing they’ve seen".
Corey Oates off to hospital with a compound fracture to his left leg, will have surgery tonight. Some staff have said “it’s the worst thing they’ve seen”. We all wish him a speedy recovery! @FOXNRL pic.twitter.com/d5Imwig18g
— Hannah Hollis (@hannahhollis_) July 17, 2020
Fortunately for Oates and the Broncos, the injury doesn’t appear as bad as first feared.
NRL.com reported on Saturday that rather than a compound fracture of the femur, Oates suffered a a large haematoma and deep gash in his leg.
He is expected to have surgery and will only likely be sidelined for three weeks.
The 25-year-old got caught up in a tackle in the second half and remarkably was able to get to his feet before succumbing to the horrific injury.
“Corey’s about to go into the ambulance,” Anthony Seibold said in his post-match press conference.
“It appears that he’s got a compound fracture there of his femur. So, it’s a very serious injury. Our thoughts go out to Corey. I just spoke to him then briefly as he was getting into the ambulance.
“He is in a fair bit of pain. He’ll need to stay in Sydney, and we’ll get some support around him by leaving a staff member with him down here.”
Injury one of many concerns for Brisbane
Nasty though the injury was, it will not top the list of Anthony Seibold's problems in Red Hill, with his confidence-sapped side losers in seven of their past eight.
"Just a lack of resilience. We lacked toughness. Nothing else to say about that," Seibold said after the game.
"It's my responsibility as a head coach, it's the players' responsibility with regards to they're doing their job and I'll do my job.
"We're down on troops, but that's no excuse for a performance like that."
Their latest capitulation will immediately put pressure back on the former South Sydney coach, who controversially replaced Michael Maguire at Redfern in 2018.
Maguire has since claimed both their meetings since arriving at Concord, where the Tigers' transformation continues.
The win lifts Maguire's side past his former club the Rabbitohs into seventh spot.
"I'm very proud of the players because they've been very strong with each other throughout training over the last month with the changes," Maguire said.
"We've seen those changes, it's now about ingraining that.
"And that's when it becomes a habit."
with Yahoo Sport staff
