A likely season-ending ACL injury to Bulldogs forward Chris Smith headed a shocking injury toll for the Indigenous All Stars in their 30-16 loss to the New Zealand Maori.
Smith left the field in the 54th minute with the injury and Indigenous All Stars coach Laurie Daley said if a ruptured ACL was confirmed by a scan he'd be "gone for the year".
Dragons prop Josh Kerr suffered an MCL injury, Sharks skipper Wade Graham limped off in the 68th minute with an ankle injury and Titans five-eighth Tyrone Roberts also has a likely ankle injury rather than an Achilles complaint which was initially thought.
Roberts suggested as he left the dressing sheds with ice on his ankle that his Achilles was fine.
Match Highlights: Indigenous All Stars v Maori All Stars
Daley said it was a cruel blow for Smith.
"I thought he was going really well too Smithy. If it is an ACL which they think it might be, he's out of the year and after putting in all the hard work it is just disappointing," Daley said.
"Whether it is one of these games or at training you can always get an injury and he's just unlucky.
"We got a lot of injuries towards the end and lost a lot of troops. Losing Tyrone, we didn't really have a strong number seven."
Daley was impressed with Eels winger Blake Ferguson, who ran for 180 metres and scored a try after kicking for himself, but it was hard for his side to get any rhythm with the ball.
"We just didn't play our best," he said.
"It was frustrating because the ruck was very slow and we just couldn't gain any momentum, but we competed hard. Our scrambling defence was excellent and our goal line defence was good until the last 10 or 15 minutes.
"We had some individuals that played really well and tried really hard, sometimes too hard."
Latrell Mitchell was solid in his first hit-out at fullback without getting too many opportunities and Daley said the best was yet to come from him.
Mitchell played the first 57 minutes in the custodian's position before lining up in the centres in the final quarter.