![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ac5e00313c52457638c709adbf2b929c5c52bccf.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\u201c[Thompson] came back from All Stars camp, we initially thought it was a tight calf, but scans showed it was a bit more than that,\u201d Canterbury coach Ciraldo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate he\u2019s not joining us, but his best possible preparation for the season is to stay in Sydney and get the right treatment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Matt Burton is good to go in the season opener, according to coach Cameron Ciraldo.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was building nicely. It\u2019s a shame he won\u2019t play in Vegas, but we\u2019re comfortable with the depth in the squad we\u2019ve built up the last few years. Sam Hughes played well in his absence against Newcastle during the trial, so I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll get an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Thompson\u2019s injury is a huge blow for the Dogs, there was brighter news for Matt Burton, who is expected to shake off a hamstring scare and take the field on Sunday week against St George Illawarra.<\/p>\n
Burton came from the field in the first half against the Knights. But Ciraldo said his five-eighth had trained strongly this week.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe scans came back all clear; he\u2019s looking very healthy now \u2013 he\u2019s ready to go,\u201d Ciraldo said. \u201cHe won \u2019t be [a risk], not the way he trained on Wednesday. I think it was a bit of a scare for him. It can be quite stressful leading up to Vegas \u2013 when you feel something little, you can make it out to be much bigger than what it is in your head. He trained with no restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
All eyes will be on halfback Lachie Galvin this season, after he was heavily scrutinised \u2013 even by his own fans \u2013 following his messy mid-season exit from the Wests Tigers.<\/p>\n
Ciraldo has been a fierce supporter of Galvin, and knows the youngster is in for a big campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I really like about him is how quickly he learns,\u201d Ciraldo said of Galvin. \u201cHe\u2019s a 20-year-old kid who is learning a lot about the game. It\u2019s not always perfect, but he comes in, reviews it, and goes out the next session and does it better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the four teams competing in the US this year, including St George Illawarra, Newcastle and North Queensland, only the Bulldogs are a realistic chance of pushing for the premiership.<\/p>\n
As was the case in previous years, the NRL has paid for a coach to transfer the Bulldogs\u2019 training equipment from Los Angeles to Vegas, so there is no chance of any important cargo going missing.<\/p>\n
North Queensland and Newcastle will depart on Friday, while the Dragons leave on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c[Thompson] came back from All Stars camp, we initially thought it was a tight calf, but scans showed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-490543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490543","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=490543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}