NRL: Tate out for season as knee goes

Brent Tate receives medical assistance after suffering a season-ending knee during last night's game against the Broncos. Photo / Getty Images

Brent Tate was almost inconsolable last night after he suffered another season-ending knee injury and increased the Warriors' injury woes.

The 27-year-old snapped his ACL joint in his right knee in the 23rd minute of last night's 26-10 defeat by the Broncos as he was going for the tryline. It is the latest in a long list of serious injuries.

In 2003 he suffered a career-threatening neck injury and the special neck brace he wears each game is a reminder of how close he came to being forced out of league. In 2007 he seriously injured his left knee playing for Queensland in game 3 of State of Origin, his final game of the season before joining the Warriors.

Last night Tate knew he was in trouble straight away as he signalled for the trainers. The sight of him being assisted from the field was a sad one.

"He's very upset," said Warriors skipper Steve Price, who is also Tate's brother-in-law. "He's been through it before and knows what he has to go through again.

"I have seen him go through it and it nearly destroyed him last time. It's going to be a tough time for him, particularly this early in the season. We will all support him as much as we can and work with him to try to get him back bigger and better."

It was the latest in a growing casualty list at the Warriors. Utility Lance Hohaia (knee) and Ben Matulino (ankle) were invalided out of the opening match against the Eels and Manu Vautvei missed last night's game after sustaining a knee injury against Manly.

Micheal Luck missed last Sunday's game with concussion, while squad players Leeson Ah Mau (shoulder) and Mataupu Poching (ankle) are also sidelined.

None are expected to recover for Sunday's visit by the Rabbitohs.

"It's growing," coach Ivan Cleary said of his injury list. "We are paying the price for our efforts at the moment, but what can you do?

"Hopefully we will start to get some boys back but we just have to get ourselves ready for the next game against the Rabbitohs."

Interestingly, three of the four injuries to first-choice players have happened to those who played in last year's World Cup - Hohaia, Vautvei and Tate.

The NRL has always been a brutal competition but it is becoming increasingly so as players become bigger, faster and stronger and the collisions increase. Recent findings by the Melbourne Storm showed that a Dallas Johnson tackle in training measured a G-force of 13.

It will be little consolation to Tate, who faces another long, hard and often lonely fight to get fit again.