Bellamy unsure on extent of Smith injury

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy admitted it was a waiting game on the extent of a foot injury to Cameron Smith, who left the field late in the side's 30-20 loss to the Rabbitohs on Friday night.

Smith hobbled to the sidelines five minutes before fulltime with Melbourne fielding 12 players in the process with concerns for the veteran's right ankle.

Initial reports suggest Smith was hampered by an ankle sprain but the Storm skipper later told Nine commentator and former Test teammate Darren Lockyer it was in the Achilles region.

However, in a promising sign the club tweeted on Saturday that Smith would not require scans and his injury would be re-evaluated on Monday.

"We're not quite sure what it is and the severity of it," Bellamy said.

"It must be on the edge of something, the Achillies or something else ... he felt a sharp pain going down into his heel.

"If it was five years ago he probably would have played on. You get wiser as you get older. Best thing to do was to come off.

"They'll check it tomorrow, or over the weekend, and go from there."

The injury occurred in a non-contact moment according to Bellamy, who appeared relaxed about the Storm skipper's injury concern post-game. 

Smith iced the injury for more than an hour following the game and missed the post-match press conference. He was seen standing casually talking to well-wishers in the Storm sheds with strapping and and a bag of ice around his ankle.

"As I get older I try not to worry about things until I have to," Bellamy said.

"Hopefully it's not too bad. Everyone's hoping that. He just told me he felt it when [Damien] Cook scored the try.

"As he was coming back to halfway he could feel it."

The injury compounded the 30-20 defeat for the Storm, who surrendered a 10-point lead of their own created late in the first half after a Curtis Scott try.

"I thought at 16-6 we had a good opportunity to have a real stranglehold on the game," Bellamy said.

"I was still reasonably happy with our first half. The second half we just didn't give ourselves a chance.

"All that pressure built up, I don't think we played the ball in their 20 until the end. That was the disappointing thing for us, we didn't give ourselves a chance in the second half.

"Souths played really well too, they played a control game there and put pressure on us."

Storm fullback Billy Slater said the Rabbitohs made a statement with the result.

"They're consistent and probably missing their best player," Slater said, referring to injured skipper Greg Inglis.

"Our game is a snowball game, if you don't attack well you'll use your fuel in defence. I learnt that they're a serious football team and we've got a lot of improvement left in us."