NRL: Injury worries mean brother to lead Manly

Roosters forward Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. Photo / Getty Images

Manly may struggle to match the Roosters after further injury problems mean fullback Brett Stewart has been promoted to skipper the Sea Eagles in today's NRL match against the Roosters after brother Glenn suffered a training mishap.

Backrower Glenn Stewart is out of the match with an injured arm which is only expected to sideline him for one week. He was to captain the already depleted side at the Sydney Football Stadium in the absence of co-captains Jamie Lyon (hamstring) and Jason King (suspension).

The 'c' will now be next to younger brother Brett's name as the Sea Eagles custodian continues his comeback from serious knee injuries which sidelined him for most of 2009 and 2010. Jamie Buhrer moves from the bench into a starting role with ex-Canterbury forward Daniel Harrison to make his NRL debut as an interchange reserve.

Glenn Stewart, Lyon and King join centre Steve Matai (suspension), forward Shane Rodney (shoulder) and a handful of promising youngsters on the sidelines. For a squad with unproven depth this year, a victory over the 2010 grand finalists will take a massive effort.

The Roosters expect Manly will try to make up for the absence of their stars with a full-on physical assault.

"They come out to play every week tough, no matter what," Roosters prop Jason Ryles said.

"Last weekend Melbourne would certainly have known they'd had a game on the Monday morning, they would've been very sore and sorry, no matter what the scoreboard is.

"Manly come out very hard, no matter who's playing, so we'll have to be ready for that. They bashed us up a little bit early in the first half there last year, so I'm sure they remember that and we do too, so we've got to aim up early."

In the only good news for Manly this week, winger David Williams (hamstring) returns after missing all of last season and makeshift centre William Hopoate is able to take his place after recovering from a shoulder problem suffered in last weekend's 18-6 loss to Melbourne.

Brian Smith's side will almost certainly welcome Dally M medallist Todd Carney back from a groin injury, in all likelihood from the bench. They were put on notice by Smith, after last week's scare from South Sydney which came on the back of a 6-0 second half penalty count, that their discipline needed to improve.

Forwards Jake Friend and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves each gave away two penalties in the half. Ryles said fiery Kiwi Waerea-Hargreaves was learning the art of controlled aggression.

"He's OK, he's a young guy, he plays on a lot of emotion and passion and it's certainly one of the prerequisites for playing footy," the former test prop said. "He's just got to learn to control that but certainly I don't think it's going to be a problem and it's something he's working hard on.

"He just gets into it. I'd hate to be on the other teams, I wouldn't want to be playing against him, that's for sure."

- AAP