The injury crisis that has befallen the hookers at the Gold Coast Titans has worsened with Kierran Moseley struck down by appendicitis as Nathan Peats races the clock to be fit for Monday night's bumper clash with the Sharks at Cbus Super Stadium.
Co-captain Nathan Friend has been ruled out for at least two weeks with a hamstring injury he picked up in the win over the Eels last weekend and Peats was a no show at training on Thursday morning with a hamstring complaint of his own.
With Moseley out for up to six weeks and Daniel Mortimer (hamstring) and Matt Srama (ACL) both gone for the season, utility Ryan Simpkins is the man next in line should Peats be unable to recover in time.
Rookie halfback Ashley Taylor was another notable absentee on Thursday morning with an ongoing groin complain unable to withstand two significant training sessions in consecutive days.
Thankfully for the Titans they have a nine-day turnaround before facing the in-form Sharks, plenty of time for Peats to recover according to lock forward Greg Bird.
"It's still only quite early with the Monday game so I'm not holding my breath yet, I think the guys will be right come captain's run on Sunday," said Bird.
"Kierran Moseley has got appendicitis and 'Mortsy' and 'Sramsy' are both no good so we're scraping the bottom of the barrel if we lose 'Peatsy'.
"We'll be making sure he's going to be out there and if that means missing training on a Thursday so be it."
Simpkins spent a lot of time at hooker on Thursday and has played there in both the NRL and with Tweed Heads in the Intrust Super Cup and Bird is expecting he will be used at dummy-half at some stage against Cronulla.
"He's played hooker for us before, coming off the bench," said Bird.
"He can play any number of positions, he's quite skilful so I'd say he'll probably be that bench utility role but it is still quite early so we'll see what happens."
The hamstring injury to Peats relates to the ACL injury he suffered whilst at the Eels in 2014 with a graft taken from his hamstring to repair the knee. He has also been managing the ongoing effects of the dislocated elbow that he suffered back in Round 2.
There was some good news for the Titans on the training paddock with prop forward David Shillington completing all contact work as he edges closer to a return from a pec injury.
