Souths in eye-opening admission about Latrell Mitchell amid ugly Jye Gray NRL drama

Interim Rabbitohs coach Ben Hornby has made an eye-opening admission about Latrell Mitchell after Thursday night's brutal loss to Penrith in the NRL. Souths remain rooted to the bottom of the ladder after being thrashed 42-12 by the defending premiers in the first match since the club sacked former coach Jason Demetriou.

South Sydney's wretched season went from bad to worse, with a number of fresh injury concerns compounding the embattled club's problems. One of those was to fullback Jye Gray, who appeared to suffer a syndesmosis injury from an ugly hip-drop tackle by Panthers centre Izack Tago, who was subsequently sent to the sin bin.

Gray looked to be in obvious pain and required heavy strapping on his ankle after the first half incident that saw the weight of Tago's body come down on the fullback's ankle as he was attempting a tackle. Gray made it to halftime but did not return after the break, as Tago copped criticism for the tackle which has seen him slapped with a one-game ban if he takes the early guilty plea, or two games if he unsuccessfully challenges it at the judiciary.

“He lost his legs, swung around the back, and the weight is directly on his ankle,” Cooper Cronk said in commentary for Fox League. “You can’t argue with that,” he added after the referee sent Tago to the bin. Warren Smith added: “You see him come down with all that weight on the outside lower leg of Jye Gray, who knew he had a problem immediately. And he’ll have an issue, you’d think, beyond tonight – when the Match Review Committee take a look at that.”

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Souths not interested in moving Latrell Mitchell from fullback

The injury to Gray was a cruel blow for the 20-year-old, who has excelled at fullback in the absence of Mitchell, who returns from suspension for the Rabbitohs next week in round 10. Many league critics and fans expected Souths to keep Gray at fullback and move Mitchell into the centres when he does return, but Hornby raised eyebrows when asked if that was the plan, during his post-match press conference.

“No,” Hornby replied bluntly, before Rabbitohs captain Cam Murray weighed in on Mitchell's impending return. “He has been training well, he has been prepping us really well and carving up at training,” the Souths skipper said.

“Latrell plays best when he just keeps it simple in his head, so we are not expecting him to come in and solve all our problems and make us into the in form team of the NRL. We just want him to come in and just be him. Obviously he has got a presence about him and he will definitely come in and boost our moods and confidence a little bit.”

Souths rocked by Jye Gray and Dean Hawkins injuries

Gray's injury looks set to rule him out action next week anyway, paving the way for Mitchell's return to fullback. And the Rabbitohs will almost certainly have to make further changes after halfback Dean Hawkins also went down with a quad injury against the Panthers.

Hawkins could be seen grabbing at his quad and wincing in pain after kicking the ball from a restart, following a Penrith try in the first half. With the No.7 likely to be sidelined for the round 10 match against the Dragons, Hornby may have to turn to recruit Jack Wighton to play in the halves alongside Cody Walker.

“We were probably a little bit clunky in that department, but it’s hard to say,” Hornby said. “I just don’t know what we’re going to pick next week with the injuries we’ve got, so we just have to sit down with the rest of the staff and see what we can come up with to get the result we want.”

Jai Arrow was another injury concern for the Rabbitohs on Thursday night after copping a knock to a troublesome shoulder that's already sidelined him for most of the season. Hornby eased any concerns around Arrow after the match though. “Yeah, he’s fine. I spoke to him in there,” Hornby said. “He said he’s got a couple of whacks on it. So we were going to think about taking him off at the back end of the game, but he said, no, I’m good to stay at his side. That’s usually a good sign for us.”