{"id":583118,"date":"2026-04-03T15:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583118\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:29:12","slug":"crichton-set-for-lenghty-sideline-stint-ciraldo-explains-not-using-bronson-xerri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583118\/","title":{"rendered":"Crichton set for lenghty sideline stint, Ciraldo explains not using Bronson Xerri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> star centre Stephen Crichton<\/a> will miss next Thursday’s clash with the Penrith Panthers<\/a> after suffering a suspected high grade AC joint injury during Good Friday’s loss against the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crichton was assisted from the field furing the second half after staying down, with the point of his shoulder making contact with the ground in an awkward-looking tackle.<\/p>\n

“It’s not looking great in there,” head coach Cameron Ciraldo<\/a> said of his club captain during the post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

“They are saying it’s sort of high Grade 2, Grade 3 possibly AC. That’s the initial sort of thoughts on it, so he will be out for a while, but it’ll be an opportunity for someone else.”<\/p>\n

The recovery range could be anywhere between three and eight weeks pending on the finalisation of a diagnosis, but Crichton, if he requires surgery, could be out for even longer.<\/p>\n

That now leaves him in doubt for the opening State of Origin<\/a> match which is less than two months away.<\/p>\n

Ciraldo made the eyebrow-raising decision during the game to bring Sean O’Sullivan<\/a> on during the game, leaving specialist centre Bronson Xerri<\/a> on the bench.<\/p>\n

He said it was down to losing Crichton as a communicator on the field.<\/p>\n

“Obviously Bronson was there covering wing and centre, but when you lose your best communicator, I needed to get another communicator out there and Sean is one of the best at that,” Ciraldo said on the replacement.<\/p>\n

The Canterbury centre is in far worse shape than South Sydney fullback Jye Gray<\/a>, who was taken from the field in the closing minutes of the game for a head injury assessment after being hit high by Canterbury bench player Sean O’Sullivan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked in the post-game press conference whether Gray had passed his HIA, head coach Wayne Bennett<\/a> simply gave a small nod of his head, indicating Gray would be fit to get on the plane to Perth for the Rabbitohs’ clash with the Canberra Raiders<\/a> next Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canterbury Bulldogs star centre Stephen Crichton will miss next Thursday’s clash with the Penrith Panthers after suffering a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-583118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583118","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=583118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}