Focus on Lottoland surface after spate of knee injuries

The Manly Sea Eagles have commissioned a report on the surface at Lottoland in light of three players suffering season-ending knee injuries in four home games this season.

Sea Eagles CEO Lyall Gorman told NRL.com on Monday that he had asked the club's head of sports science to look into the history of the ground and the injuries that have occurred there.

"We've had three ACLs [anterior cruciate ligament] tears in eight rounds and I know there was two there last year," Gorman said on the Inside the NRL program.

"We are trying to find out if there is something there with the surface itself that's causing it, or being a catalyst for a part of that or not."

Forwards Curtis Sironen and Kelepi Tanginoa both ruptured their ACLs in round four as the Sea Eagles hosted Canberra at Lottoland.

Then five-eighth Lachlan Croker wrecked his knee - the third ACL of his career - in last Friday's round eight loss to Newcastle.

There have been previous studies on the grass and sand mixture at Manly's home ground.

"There was a paper done by [Dr] John Orchard in 2005 that sort of suggested the couch [grass] surface is not really great for professional sportsmen," Gorman said.

"So we hope to have something positive to take to [Northern Beaches] Council by the back end of this week in regards to our research on it."

Orchard has more than 20 years experience in sports medicine and was chief medical officer at the Sydney Roosters, the Sydney Swans and the NSW State of Origin team.

Manly leases the field and surrounding parkland, known as Brookvale Oval, from the Northern Beaches Council.