The Panthers will be sweating on two of their biggest stars after representative forward Liam Martin left Accor Stadium in a knee brace, while Origin hopeful Casey McLean was sent to the sin bin and struggled defensively in their shock loss to the Bulldogs.

Martin came off late in the second half and appeared to feel for his left knee, with early suggestions that he’s suffered medial damage which will require scans.

“He said it was feeling a bit loose so I’m not too sure,” Penrith coach Ivan Cleary said.

“Most likely it’s a medial, but he’s not in a lot of pain or stiffness or anything so that might be something.”

In better news, Cleary revealed that Liam Henry is set to make his return from injury on Friday night in the NSW Cup after his side went down 32-16 to end their perfect start to the season.

McLean now faces a nervous wait for the charge sheet to drop after he was marched in the eighth minute for a high shot on Max King that was initially missed but spotted a set later by the Bunker.

“My initial thoughts are that based around the pub test, none of the players saw it or felt it,” Cleary said.

“It might have been shoulder and then head (which caused the) whiplash. It looked like similar to another one we had in the trial game.

“There’s not much vision so it’s hard to say. He (King) came back on so that’s good news.”

McLean wasn’t at his best after a brilliant start to the season that has him in contention to make his Blues debut next month.

His coach didn’t single him out, but he did suggest a few players on his left edge will learn some valuable lessons after they were picked apart by the Bulldogs.

“Maybe they were getting ready for Origin camp,” Cleary laughed.

“A couple of the boys went back a couple of pegs tonight. They’re young and it’s a good part of the experience for them. I’m sure they’ll bounce back.”

Bulldogs halfback Lachlan Galvin tormented that side of the field in what was arguably his best performance in the NRL in what’s been a career that’s been heavily scrutinised since he made his Tigers debut.

“It was his 50th game tonight. A lot of people say it takes 50 games to feel like an NRL player or to understand it,” Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo said.

“I thought he was brilliant. He controlled the game for long periods, he did what he needed to do and he didn’t overplay his hand.

“He has to deal with a fair bit. There are always question marks asked about him, but he’s handled it great.”

The loss snapped Penrith’s perfect start to the season that had seen them win all five games by at least 20 points which led to suggestions that they could go through 2026 without losing a game.

“Rugby league is the ultimate leveller so it might be the best thing for us to maybe stop a little bit of that noise of people talking about being unbeaten through the season,” co-captain Isaah Yeo said.

“That’s certainly not the case now, but I think we’ll be able to look back and just learn lessons from it.

“We’ve been able to learn lessons from the last few weeks as well, but ultimately we’ve sort of been in big leads throughout the game, whereas tonight we were a fairway behind and then it’s just a different flow to the game.

“I think we’ll be able to learn lessons from that and then we’ll need to be better for it. It’ll stop a little bit of noise, which is not a bad thing.

“Our best footy is still in front of us, but it probably took a bit of a step back tonight which is disappointing.