New Zealand Warriors captain Steve Price will miss the club's last two games of the National Rugby League season to undergo eye surgery.
Price had just returned to the side from a three-match injury lay-off for last week's 34-20 win over Canberra before receiving a surprise medical update.
The 35-year-old
313-game veteran will undergo surgery on Friday after a specialist discovered he had a detached retina.
It sidelines him from Sunday's match against his former club the Bulldogs in Sydney as well as the season finale at home to Melbourne on September 5.
Since Price joined the Warriors he has missed several games against the Bulldogs club through State of Origin commitments or injury.
He is denied the chance of being involved in what is being promoted as the Bulldogs' farewell to their goal-kicking star Hazem El Masri, who is retiring at the end of the season.
Warriors' second rower Simon Mannering has also been ruled out of Sunday's match.
Mannering, who turns 23 on Friday, was forced off the field with a knee injury after 50 minutes of the Canberra win - his 99th NRL career appearance.
Coach Ivan Cleary said Mannerng may yet become the 16th player to raise a century of games for the Warriors when they host Melbourne.
"Simon's injury doesn't seem too bad and we're hopeful he'll be right against the Storm for his 100th match," said coach Ivan Cleary, who brings up his 100th game as the club's head coach on Sunday.
Mannering's rare injury break stops his exceptional run of consecutive appearances for the club, ending it at 92. Halfback Stacey Jones has the club record of 100 straight matches, from 1995-1999.
Evarn Tuimavave returns to the starting lineup at prop this week while Micheal Luck takes over the captaincy again and Russell Packer rejoins the bench.
Lewis Brown moves into the starting pack as Mannering's replacement, with Ben Matulino added to the bench.
Luck could go through the 1000 tackles barrier on Sunday despite his lowest defensive workload of the season against the Raiders.
Required to make 32 tackles last Sunday, he now has 969 tackles, already ahead of his competition-topping totals in both 2007 and 2008.
New Zealand Warriors team named today to play the Bulldogs in a National Rugby League match in Sydney on Sunday:
Wade McKinnon, Kevin Locke, Lance Hohaia, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei, Joel Moon, Stacey Jones, Sam Rapira, Aaron Heremaia, Evarn Tuimavave, Lewis Brown, Ukuma Ta'ai, Micheal Luck (captain). Interchange: Ian Henderson, Russell Packer, Jacob Lillyman, Ben Matulino
- NZPA
New Zealand Warriors captain Steve Price will miss the club's last two games of the National Rugby League season to undergo eye surgery.
Price had just returned to the side from a three-match injury lay-off for last week's 34-20 win over Canberra before receiving a surprise medical update.
The 35-year-old
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