Trent Merrin is the latest to fall victim to Penrith's injury curse after suffering a freak finger injury in the warm-up to their NRL loss to North Queensland.
The incident forced Merrin to withdraw from the match in Bathurst before being rushed to Penrith hospital overnight after initially seeking to undergo surgery in Orange.
It is believed there were no experienced surgeons available in the central west region on Friday night.
"I think he's going to have some surgery tonight. They're not sure if it's a dislocation or fracture of his finger so they have to get it cleaned up tonight," Panthers coach Anthony Griffin said.
Merrin's injury could sideline him for up to eight weeks, joining a crowded casualty ward already housing Nathan Cleary, Waqa Blake, Dylan Edwards, Josh Mansour and Sam McKendry.
Young bench forward Jack Hetherington also faces a week on the sideline even with an early guilty plea after he was charged with dangerous contact on the Cowboys' Shaun Fensom in the loss.
It comes after prop Tim Browne was this week forced to retire but Griffin refuses to use their mounting injury toll as an excuse for their third defeat of the season.
The Panthers fought back from 20 points down against the Cowboys but eventually fell 26-20.
"It's obviously not ideal. Every week we've got new parts to our edge or both edges. New winger tonight, new centres, so the combinations obviously is not ideal but that's just this competition," Griffin said.
"You've got to go through periods where you're not going to have your best team on the field and if we'd been better and more solid for a full 80 minutes, we could win that football game.
"I don't want to sit here and make excuses about injuries. We had a side out there tonight that tried their backsides off undoubtedly but we just handed them their points too easily."
Merrin tried to stay upbeat about his injury when speaking to the Nine network during the match.
"In the warm-up, I just compound fractured my finger. The bone was sticking out of the finger. I go under the knife Monday, probably two weeks after that," Merrin said.
