COVID-19 injury curse could prove scientific benefits of pre-season

There'll certainly be plenty of case studies, with the Raiders alone struggling to name 21 fit players on occasions.

At one stage they had eight players in the casualty ward - John Bateman (shoulder), Josh Hodgson (knee), Sia Soliola (face), Corey Horsburgh (foot), Emre Guler (ankle), Curtis Scott (arm), Michael Oldfield (hamstring) and Bailey Simonsson (shoulder).

They've welcomed a couple back, but have now lost fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (finger) instead.

This week's opponents, the North Queensland Cowboys - who they play in Townsville on Saturday - are in the same boat.

So are the New Zealand Warriors. So are AFL clubs.

Stuart felt limited training in the lead-up to the competition restart might have been a factor.

The NRL went into a 10-week hiatus between rounds two and three, with players restricted to training on their own for a large part of that.

"There was no way in the world I thought we'd have the injury rate that we've had," Stuart said.

"This is all very new to us with the COVID and the situation it's created.

"You look at a lot of the contact sports and the amount of injuries that have happened - I'm talking AFL, the NRL - the amount of injuries there'll be some interesting research done on it in regards to how important pre-season and the amount of weeks we have for pre-season - just for the importance of players in the prevention of injury."

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While the Raiders middle forwards have been hard hit by injury, their right edge has also had a revolving door installed.

Between form issues, team balance and injury, that right side has only had the same four players once in the past six weeks.

For the opening six rounds, Stuart was able to play the same four every week.

Curtis Scott was dropped and has since had an arm infection. Jordan Rapana has been used on the wing and in the centres. Michael Oldfield did his hamstring. And now Bateman's returned from two bouts of shoulder surgery.

The only mainstay has been halfback George Williams, who has played all 11 games.

"We haven't been able to create a lot of stability on the right edge due to injuries to Michael, Curtis," Stuart said.

"We've had to change around a couple of positions with combinations because I didn't want to put two young players together.

"They've handled the change and to still have some quality has been good.

"It will be nice to create some stability though. That will come down to sustaining form and no more injuries."

Stuart said Bateman could've played last week, but the extra conditioning and contact training will be beneficial.

Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker also felt Bateman's return alongside Williams would also benefit - the pair having payed together for England.

"It's new combinations and it's a new edge again this week," Croker said.

"John's back and John and George being together will be really good for that edge.

"I do feel sorry for them - they've had a lot of change over the course of the start of the season and even the last couple of weeks the right edge has been demolished.

"We've had someone different in there most weeks. We're pretty lucky on the left edge it's really only been the winger that we've had to change."

NRL ROUND 12

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v North Queensland Cowboys at Townsville, 5.30pm.

Raiders team list: 1. Jordan Rapana, 2. Semi Valemei, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Curtis Scott, 5. Nick Cotric, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. George Williams, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Siliva Havili, 10. Dunamis Lui, 11. John Bateman, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Hudson Young. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Joe Tapine, 16. Ryan Sutton, 17. Corey Harawira-Naera. Reserves: 18. Sam Williams, 19. Harley Smith-Shields.

Cowboys team list: 1. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, 2. Kyle Feldt, 3. Justin O'Neill, 4. Connelly Lemuelu, 5. Murray Taulagi, 14. Mitch Dunn, 7. Jake Clifford, 17. Francis Molo 9. Reece Robson, 10. Jordan McLean, 11. Shane Wright, 12. Coen Hess, 13. Jason Taumalolo (c). Interchange: 15. Tom Gilbert,16. Gavin Cooper, 18. John Asiata, 19. Ben Hampton. Reserves: 20. Esan Marsters, 21. Jake Granville.