Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has revealed star centre Joey Leilua could be out of the NRL for at least three months with a neck injury.
Leilua was injured against Manly two weeks ago and he was ruled out of Canberra's clash against Penrith on the morning of the game last Saturday.
The reigning Dally M centre of the year has a bulging disk in his neck.
Leilua saw a second specialist on Thursday and Stuart admitted the initial diagnosis had not been good news.
"There's talk it could be three months," he said.
"But it could be longer... until I know from our medical team exactly where we're at it's hard to speculate."
Stuart said Leilua was a "huge" loss and the 27-year-old joins internationals John Bateman (eye-socket) and Joe Tapine (ankle) in the injury ward.
"Unfortunately, three of our very good players sitting on the bench at the moment, it knocks us around but it's part and parcel of footy," Stuart said.
"But we're winning games of footy and that's really important when you've got three quality blokes sitting on the bench.
"I know what I've got here and if we don't get too much bad luck we'll be there at the end of the year fighting in a semi final."
Winger Jordan Rapana could make another early return for the Raiders clash against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday following a rib injury two weeks ago.
Rapana returned from a shoulder reconstruction six weeks ahead of schedule in round two and Stuart expects the New Zealand star to play this week.
"It's as though we're giving false information in regards to when he comes back but we're really just giving the information of what medically should be occurring," Stuart said.
"I'm just so happy we didn't use his money at the start of the year in regards to the compensation we had (for players hurt playing international games) because he could have played round one.
"If I had of used his money he'd still be sitting out now."
