Parramatta coach Brad Arthur says it's up to the Wests Tigers whether they will grant Mitchell Moses a mid-season release and solve the Eels' urgent halves crisis.
The Eels could be without chief playmaker Corey Norman for up to four weeks after the halfback suffered a knee injury in the Eels' 48-10 loss to the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
The setback could ramp up the Eels' chase of wantaway Tigers five-eighth Moses, however Arthur believes the team has more problems to deal with following the heavy loss.
"That's out of my control, that's up to the Tigers. But we've got plenty of things that we need to get right before we worry about that," Arthur said after the match.
Norman limped from the field in the second half at Allianz Stadium after being caught awkwardly from behind by Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and didn't return.
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The early fears are that the Eels, who dropped to ninth on the ladder after losing their first game in four rounds, could be without Norman for up to a month.
"They'll need to send him for scans but I've been told a grade two medial ... I don't know, maybe four weeks. But there was a bigger blow today and it wasn't Corey Norman," Arthur said.
"We just got out-muscled. I thought the physicality, we weren't in it today. It's something we want to pride ourselves on. We were outplayed in every aspect of the game."
Norman was believed to be an outside chance of receiving a maiden State of Origin call-up for Queensland next week amid concerns over the health of Johnathan Thurston.
However he has all but been ruled out of contention for the May 31 encounter.
"I'm disappointed for him but I'm disappointed for our club because at the end of the day he's here to play for Parramatta. He's going to have lots of opportunities to play rep footy," Arthur said.
Norman's injury comes after original pivot Clint Gutherson was forced to play fullback following an injury to first-choice No.1 Bevan French.
Third-choice five-eighth Brad Takairangi has also been sidelined with a knee issue, while veteran Jeff Robson only just came back from an injury layoff in reserve grade.
"We'll be fine. We've had that many changes to our halves throughout the four-year period. I don't think this is going to make too much of a difference," Arthur said.
Eels captain Tim Mannah labelled the team's effort against the Roosters as embarrassing.
"All us guys in the middle could've muscled up a lot better than we did. We just made it really hard on ourselves and allowed them to just roll through us," he said.
"To be honest, it was embarrassing."
