Shillington fears the worstTest prop David Shillington is facing more than a month on the sideline, fearing this morning's scan on his injured pectoral will reveal a tear to the muscle.
Shillington suffered the injury in Canberra's loss to the Wests Tigers on Sunday, but still flew to the Gold Coast that night after being selected in the Australian side for Friday's Test against New Zealand.
A medical yesterday morning instantly ruled him out of the Test, with Cronulla's Kade Snowden taking Shillington's place. The Canberra prop said the injury to his left pectoral felt the same as when he tore the muscle midway through 2009, and missed five weeks.
He'll have a scan this morning before flying back to Canberra later today and linking up with his besieged clubmates.
''[Yesterday] morning I couldn't even lift my arm up when I was laying on my back on the physio bench,'' Shillington said.
''I tried to do a push up against the wall and it just collapsed.
''I tried to talk myself into it being a cork, I thought it'll be right, I'll just ice her up and away we go. The stiffness and pain kicked in after a while and now it's pretty ordinary.
''When I did it last time I think I missed five weeks so that might be some sort of guideline for me.''
Shillington had been looking forward to Friday's clash with New Zealand and the chance to exact revenge for last year's loss to the Kiwis in the Four Nations final.
It was the only time the rampaging Queenslander had lost while wearing the Kangaroos jersey in seven games. The 27-year-old was also desperate to put in a strong performance and prove he was still one of the country's top-line forwards.
''I didn't want to just give up my Test jersey as well, there's so much competition in the front row ... there's probably six or eight top-line props running around,'' Shillington said.
''You don't want to give anyone else your jersey in fear of not winning it back.''
Meanwhile, the Raiders will have a training-free day before returning to the paddock tomorrow ahead of Monday night's round-nine clash with Manly at Brookvale Oval.
Canberra is hopeful New Zealand back-rower Bronson Harrison, and Country Origin stars Josh Dugan, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs and Joel Thompson will back up from representative duties.
Despite his injury, Shillington was determined to play a role in a Raiders' revival.
''Being a senior player, hopefully I can help out in some way ... with my knowledge and my experience to help the younger blokes.''
Source: The Canberra Times
Topic: Shillington fears the worst
