Reagan Campbell-Gillard's hopes of earning a State of Origin recall are all but over after he suffered a suspected hip fracture from a hip-drop tackle in Brisbane's 26-16 defeat of Parramatta.
Campbell-Gillard went down, the victim of a tackle from Payne Haas that went unpunished on-field, just as the Eels were beginning to recover from the Broncos' fast 22-6 start on Friday.
The prop forward left Darwin's TIO Stadium in an ambulance and an Eels spokesperson said early indications were he could miss eight to 12 weeks.
"He's in a lot of pain, he can hardly walk," Eels coach Brad Arthur said of Campbell-Gillard's injury.
"Wiremu (Greig) has done a good job, he'll have to come into Reg's place. I think it'll be more than a couple of weeks."
It comes as the NRL ponders how best to police the hip-drop tackle, the scourge of the league in recent seasons.
Eels recruit J'maine Hopgood and Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam were sin-binned for their own hip-drop tackles and are set for scrutiny from the match-review committee, but the tackle by Haas caused the only serious injury and did not even result in a penalty.
"I'm not an expert on hip-drops," Arthur said.
"I do know that we're going to be missing Reg for quite some time and with my untrained eye, looking at all three tackles, they looked pretty similar to me."
Broncos boss Kevin Walters was content to let the match review committee determine whether Haas would miss game time.
"I believe it went upstairs to the bunker and they must have cleared it. I'm not sure," he said.
"We'll let the people look after that stuff look after it."
Adam Reynolds and Mam conspired to put the Broncos on the path to victory in the first half; at least one of the two halves had a hand in each of Brisbane's four first-half tries.
It was Brisbane's domination through the middle that allowed their playmakers to thrive, Haas leading the pack with 212 run metres and Patrick Carrigan pitching in 158.
Once in position, Mam, Reynolds and fullback Reece Walsh had the ball on a string.
In wet conditions, Brisbane never went on with the bloodshed as it looked like they might, but nor could the Eels complete their second-half comeback in wet conditions.
Told to lift his game by Arthur earlier this month, five-eighth Dylan Brown was the best of a beaten bunch.
He set up two of Parramatta's three tries with his boot, first putting a grubber kick through for his captain Clint Gutherson and then finding Maika Sivo across field amid the downpour.
"We knew they were always going to fight back in the second half," Walters said.
"Those games, we had a lot of possession in the first half, so they normally swing back to even up.
"We expected a tough game and we got one."
Mam's sin-binning encouraged the Eels on their comeback, Parramatta shifting right to Sean Russell and closing the gap to 10 points.
But Russell was denied a second try when referee Ash Klein called Mitch Moses' cut-out pass forward.
Eels centre Bailey Simonsson will miss next week's clash with Newcastle after suffering a concussion in his attempt to tackle Selwyn Cobbo in the second half.
