More will be revealed later today in regards to the fitness of the Sharks two young stars in Jayden Brailey and Jack Bird when the squad to play the Cowboys on Saturday night is announced.
Brailey broke his jaw in round 16 in a match against Manly, while Bird injured a shoulder in the Sharks loss to the Raiders two weeks ago, with the status of the two somewhat unknown heading into this weekend’s crucial clash.
At training on Monday Brailey run with the NRL group, orchestrating plays for dummy half and getting involved in contact when required. He finished off with 10-minutes of wrestling with club Captain Paul Gallen, a session certain to give coaching staff a clear indication as to his potential fitness for Saturday’s game.
Brailey has declared he is fit and ready to go, having lost only minimal weight despite the fact he only went back to eating solid foods a little over a week ago.
There is every chance Brialey will be named in the 21-man squad later today, however before taking the field and being included in the 17 on game day he would need to be cleared by Sharks medical staff.
As for fellow young gun Bird, his status is similarly unclear.
Bird went through some rigorous conditioning drills on Monday but he did so away from the main group.
In looking back at similar shoulder injuries, Jayson Bukuya missed just one week, Sam Tagataese two, making it difficult to predict a return to the field for Bird.
There is a chance he will also be named later today, with his injury having until the weekend to fully heal and recover.
The only other Shark on the injured list at the current time is Tony Williams, however after undergoing a knee reconstruction the big backrower is set to miss the remainder of the season.
While their pride was bruised and somewhat battered following the loss to the Broncos on Friday night the Sharks were reporting no other injury concerns.
James Maloney, with an extra week to recover from a broken hand, will be on deck against the Cowboys and is expected to be better for the run last Friday.
The Sharks team list is announced on ‘Team List Tuesday’ at 4.00pm today.
