With no history of knee injuries Titans half Ashley Taylor admits he has no idea how serious the injury he suffered to his left knee on Saturday night could be but coach Neil Henry is resigned to being without him for next week's clash with the Dragons in Sydney.
After coping a barrage of physical abuse from the Broncos forwards all night Taylor had to leave the field in the 62nd minute after Adam Blair stood on his foot as Taylor attacked the try-line, forcing the 22-year-old's knee to buckle inwardly as his foot was locked onto the turf.
Found it mate, typical MCL mechanism. But don't like seeing the knee collapse in, puts ACL at risk too. Unlikely they would miss that though pic.twitter.com/clv7dBaiaJ
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) August 5, 2017
Henry said in the post-match press conference he believed it was some type of medial ligament injury but the full extent won't be known until he can have scans on his knee on Monday.
With his left leg in a Game Ready knee sleeve that will provide cold compression as he sleeps, Taylor spoke of the fear of hearing "a little crack" as the incident occurred as well as the fear of the unknown.
"I've never done a knee before so I don't really know what to expect," said Taylor, who was in some doubt during the week with a hip pointer injury.
"It just got caught. When I passed the ball someone caught my boot and my knee buckled a little bit.
"I heard a little crack but that might just be normal. I don't know, I've never done it before. I've just got to ice it and rest it and see how it pulls up."
For the former Bronco the record 54-0 defeat at the hands of so many of his former teammates was particularly hard to stomach.
The final scoreline represented the greatest losing margin in the Titans' 11 seasons to date, was 20 points more than their previous biggest loss to the Broncos and is thus far the biggest loss suffered by any team this season.
The scoreboard read 32-0 when Taylor left the field but even in pain and with the game gone he said it was a tough time to have to walk off the field.
"Not the best time and moment to come off the field, especially when we're behind on the scoreboard and we needed points," Taylor said.
"I've never done a knee before and it was hurting like hell out there.
"I tried to stay out there but I didn't really want to let the team down and obviously Tyrone [Roberts] was on the bench, another half that could fill that role so it was in the best interests of the team for Tyrone to be out there."
Late in the first half and with the game very much in the balance Taylor ran down Broncos winger and good friend Corey Oates as he threatened to go the length of the field.
Playing his first game in six weeks after a staph infection became so serious that there was a possibility he wouldn't play again this season, Oates made a triumphant return with two tries but didn't have the speed to get away from his little mate.
"I just said he was no chance of getting around me," Taylor said after the game. "I just said, 'Lucky you've got lots of fat 'cause you've been out'. I held on to his fat and had a little joke with him.
"Oatesy's a top bloke, I got on well with him at the Broncs. We just had a little giggle moment there when the play was stopped.
"It's awesome [to see him back]. It's really rare what he had and for him to come back off that and I thought he played pretty good tonight."
