Steve Price to miss Warriors' season opener

Sunday Star-Times

SIDELINED: A heel injury is set to keep former Warriors captan Steve Price out of the opening round of the NRL.

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Warriors coach Ivan Cleary has moved quickly to dispel talk of an injury crisis crippling his first-grade side just over a month out from the new season.

Rumours surfaced during the week suggesting the Warriors would be without a spate of frontline players for the start of the NRL season.

But Cleary yesterday said only former skipper Steve Price (heel injury) was expected to sit out the season-opener against the Gold Coast Titans on March 14 in Australia.

Micheal Luck, Jerome Ropati, Jesse Royal, Lance Hohaia and Brent Tate are also understood to have suffered from "niggles" during the pre-season but Cleary said all would be available come round one.

Cleary said of Price: "I'm not to sure at this stage when he will be right but it's not going to be one of those injuries that keeps him out for the season. It will be a case of a couple of games probably."

Meanwhile, Cleary said there was still a chance the Warriors would look to recruit at least one more player in the coming weeks.

It's most likely any signing would be an outside back.

"We're still looking," he said.

"We've been fairly active behind the scenes but at this point we haven't found the right match.

"There are lots of leads out there but when push comes to shove clubs are shutting down a bit.

"We're still looking and the game has got to the point where there are still opportunities for that, even once the season starts.

"In the meantime, we are pretty happy with who we have got but our concern is probably depth and if we are struck down by a pretty big injury toll we might need some extra depth.

"We will see what happens in the next few weeks."

- © Fairfax NZ News