Gold Coast halfback Kane Elgey knew something was wrong the moment he walked into the doctor's office.
The Titans star hurt his knee during the NRL club's first trainings session of 2016 but thought little of the knock as he went to visit club doctor Paul Ohmsen for the results of an MRI scan.
The look on Ohmsen's face immediately told the 21-year-old to be worried.
Ohmsen then told Elgey the devastating news, he'd ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament, and his season was over before it had even started.
"I thought it might have been a one-week injury," Elgey told the Titans' website.
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"Went and saw the doctor that afternoon and his face sort of told me it was bad.
"The extent of the injury doesn't feel what it is. It's a long term injury and I can still walk around and that. The first two days I was pretty shattered."
Elgey's injury immediately plunged the embattled Titans into another crisis they can ill afford.
The club has signed Elgey's former schoolmate Cameron Cullen on a six-week "train and trial" contract as cover while recruits Ashley Taylor and Tyrone Roberts now look the club's main halves combination for the season ahead.
That situation meant at least one bookmaker quickly installed the Titans as wooden spoon favourites for 2016 but Elgey firmly refutes that insinuation.
"We've still got some great players there. We've got Ash coming through," he said.
"There's big wraps on him and he's going to go real well.
"He's in the same situation with what happened to me last year when Morts got injured. He'll take it with two hands, he's that type of bloke.
"He's confident, don't think too much of it, he'll be right."
