Dom Young provides update for NRL fans as Manly forward hit with whopping suspension

Dom Young has moved to assure NRL fans that he's fine after being taken from the ground in a neck brace on a stretcher in his first game for the Sydney Roosters on Saturday. Young was injured in a crusher tackle from Manly forward Toff Sipley in the second half of their trial game on the Central Coast and was taken from the field.

There were concerning scenes when Young emerged from the dressing room on a stretcher and wearing a neck brace, before being placed in an ambulance and taken to hospital. The star winger, who joined the Roosters from the Knights in the off-season, has endured a difficult summer after he was hospitalised in England when a sinus infection spread to his brain in October.

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Despite the worrying scenes on Saturday, the Roosters quickly moved to state that Young was heading to hospital only as a precaution. With the Roosters due to fly to Las Vegas for the opening round of the NRL season this week, the club believed that sending Young to hospital would allow them to get scan results quicker.

In a positive development, Young took to social media late on Saturday night to provide an update. “I’m all good," he wrote. "Appreciate all the messages.”

Initial scans cleared the winger, but it has now emerged that he'll miss the trip to Las Vegas. Follow-up scans revealed ligament damage in his neck that might require surgery.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson earlier said: "He's good, it's just when you're dealing with the neck, you want to be precautionary, so he's just gone to the hospital to get a scan. He was good in there (in the dressing room), talking and sitting up and all that, but they just want to keep it stable just so we know what's exactly wrong with it. But he was in good spirits and he was fine."

The Roosters are facing a selection headache in the outside backs, with Robinson needing to fit Young, Daniel Tupou, Joey Manu, Joseph Suaalii and Billy Smith into four spots. That will be eased with Young's absence, but the try-scoring freak will no doubt come back in when available.

Sea Eagles to be without Toff Sipley in Las Vegas

Meanwhile, the Sea Eagles will be without Sipley in Las Vegas after the forward was hit with a three-game suspension. Sipley was placed on report at the time, and the match review committee came down hard on Sunday.

He will miss three matches after taking an early guilty plea, ruling him out of Manly's historic clash in Las Vegas before also sitting out games against the Roosters and Parramatta. Sipley would almost certainly have been part of the 17 for the match at Allegiant Stadium on March 3, and risked missing an additional game if he decided to fight the charge.

“I thought it was accidental and didn’t look good,” Robinson said of the incident. “There was a lot of force at that point. I don’t know what their (referees) thought process is during the trial games…so I don’t really have an opinion on that apart from exactly how it was. It wasn’t intentional, but it was a lot of force on his neck.”

The Sea Eagles also appear likely to be without Josh Schuster for their round-one clash with South Sydney. Originally scheduled to come off the bench in Saturday's trial game, Schuster was put on ice for another week as he recovers from a calf injury.

Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold said the plan is for Schuster to play in next Saturday's pre-season match against Brisbane at Brookvale, before he flies to the US the following day - five days later than his teammates. Schuster has had a troubled pre-season, with yet another calf issue to go along with a broken hand and a bout of chicken pox.

"He'll fly to Vegas on the Sunday and then we'll make a decision whether he is in the 17 or not," Seibold said on Fox Sports. "It's a long season and this is quite a unique preparation for us. The physio decided to pull him out and give him a good prep for the Broncos trial."

The Roosters ran out 36-22 victors over Manly - joining Newcastle, Canberra and Souths as winners of Saturday's trial games. The Rabbitohs beat the Dragons 28-6 in the traditional Charity Shield fixture on Saturday night.

with AAP

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