The pain of St George Illawarra's heartbreaking defeat to South Sydney could worsen with the club sweating on injuries to star pair Josh Dugan and Tyson Frizell.
Dugan lasted just 23 minutes of Friday's last-gasp 26-24 loss before retiring with an ankle injury, while Frizell came off late after aggravating a previous rib injury.
Dragons coach Paul McGregor wasn't optimistic about Dugan.
"It looks pretty bad at the minute, syndesmosis. So we'll have to have a look probably 48 hours once that swelling goes down. But it's not good at the minute," he said post-match.
Dugan could be joined on the sideline by Frizell, whose first-half injection off the bench turned a six-point deficit in the first half into a ten-point lead before he succumbed to injury late.
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The Rabbitohs scored 24 of their 26 points with Frizell off the field.
"He really changed the momentum of the game when he come onto the field," McGregor said.
"He straightens up and we got a couple of late offloads which created a bit of fracture to the D line and got some benefit off the back of that.
"We were looking to move him to the edge but he needed a spell there, and then he come back on again and he got a bit of an injury towards the end of the game that's why he was replaced."
McGregor admitted that, with an injured Russell Packer also on the sidelines, his forward pack is lacking some veteran presence.
"We haven't got any experienced players out there playing at the moment out in that middle of the field. That's really important for the dominance that we have in our power game," he said.
Dragons skipper Gareth Widdop was disappointed with the way his team conceded two tries in the final five minutes to throw away their chance at consolidating eighth spot.
The defeat opens the door for ninth-placed Penrith to leapfrog the Dragons should they defeat Wests Tigers on Sunday.
"We can't be losing games like that, we were in front. It was our composure in defence in the end that let us down. In one set, they roll 100 metres to score," Widdop said.
The Dragons face Gold Coast next week.
