in his side\u2019s loss to the Broncos<\/a> and would undergo scans in Melbourne later on Friday before consulting a surgeon on a recovery plan.<\/p>\nIn a further blow, Melbourne also said fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen had failed his head injury assessment in the second half and would enter the NRL\u2019s concussion protocols.<\/p>\n
Under those protocols, Papenhuyzen will enter a mandatory 11-day stand-down period, which rules him out of playing in next week\u2019s qualifying final against the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
As for Hughes, he suffered the injury when he attempted a tackle on a rampaging Brendan Piakura before reeling in pain the next time he tried to throw a pass. <\/p>\n
He left the field and did not return in a crushing blow to the Storm\u2019s finals chances.<\/p>\n
Bellamy later confirmed the worst while making a shock admission over Hughes who was returning for his first match since suffering a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not quite sure if it\u2019s his wrist or just halfway up the forearm, but I think it\u2019s a break without a doubt,\u201d Bellamy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in plaster already. That wasn\u2019t a great idea to put him back in this week, but anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d imagine it\u2019s season over, I can\u2019t answer that question directly, but I\u2019d imagine it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, is it season over for the Storm as well? <\/p>\n
Melbourne’s season in ‘Trouble’ | 01:43<\/p>\n
Anasta isn\u2019t quite writing them off entirely, but he said he struggles to see Melbourne going all the way without its influential halfback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say most likely not, no,\u201d Anasta said on Triple M when asked if the Storm can still win the premiership without Hughes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so important to that team. But you\u2019ve got to remember you\u2019ve got Harry Grant coming back in who is really their best player. This year he has been. <\/p>\n
\u201cYoung Jonah Pezet, who I manage, will now come into the team. Whether they start him or Wishart is a big decision for them to make. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got Jack Howarth to come in and they struggled yesterday on the edges as well. They\u2019re a great team. They\u2019ll fight and they\u2019ll fight until the end. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just think the X-factor of Jahrome probably does cost them a premiership or a chance (at it). It\u2019s a big loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Storm skipper Cameron Munster admitted Hughes would be a big loss, but backed Tyran Wishart and Jonah Pezet to stand up in his absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played with them last three or four weeks before Jahrome came back, so we had a really good combination\u201d Munster said.<\/p>\n
Bellamy confirms Hughes injury fears | 07:40<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we lost one and that was the Roosters together. It\u2019s obviously going to be disappointing not having Hughes, he\u2019s such an integral part to our attack and our defence. \u201cHe\u2019s a class player, don\u2019t get me wrong. He won the Dally M for a reason last year. But we\u2019ve got some good depth in our halves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of belief in those two guys, Paz. I know a lot of people are going to put a lot of speculation, a lot of stuff in the headlines and media about whether we can do it or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s what you sell the papers for. We\u2019ve got to worry about our own four walls. <\/p>\n
Munster said the Storm\u2019s defence was of bigger concern.<\/p>\n
Walsh HEROICS end in toilet water celly! | 00:41<\/p>\n
\u201cLike Craig spoke about, we\u2019ve got to have defence wins games and we\u2019ve leaked 70 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can work on our defence, points will come. We\u2019ve got to have a good hard look at ourselves and our defence if we just have an attitude problem. At the moment, the last couple of weeks, our attitude stinks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braith Anasta has declared the Melbourne Storm will \u201cmost likely\u201d not win the premiership now that they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,84251,14868,4428,83667,83832,11101,12732,84623,13213,763,84625,4575,82749,4746,84624,4466,761,762,158,19966,84622,83666,19970,4439,85,19973,84621,84015,73582,1651],"class_list":["post-119753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bennett-backs","tag-brandon-mychal-smith","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-broken-wrist","tag-changes-complexion","tag-cooper-cronk","tag-dan-ginnane","tag-eloise-sohier","tag-finals-series","tag-fox-league","tag-horrible-sight-watching","tag-jahrome-hughes","tag-man-dodges-heat","tag-mark-st-john","tag-massive-blow","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-premiership-hopes","tag-routine-pass","tag-rugby-star","tag-sideline-reporter","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs","tag-sports","tag-star-halfback","tag-suspected-broken-wirst","tag-suspected-broken-wrist","tag-title-bid","tag-wayne-bennett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}