The sight of a shattered Tom Trbojevic being helped from the field has further soured Manly's 24-14 NRL loss to a fast finishing Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
The flying fullback staked a NSW Origin claim when he helped Manly race to a 14-0 lead after just nine minutes.
But it ended in tears for the Sea Eagles - and possibly the Blues.
Trbojevic suffered left knee and ankle injuries when he fell awkwardly while tackled by David Mead trying to defuse a Broncos bomb in the 64th minute.
The No.1 was clearly distressed as he was escorted off the field by Manly support staff.
"He could be gone for the year, I don't know," Manly coach Trent Barrett said.
"The ankle is the main concern."
Trbojevic had been touted as a possible NSW No.1 ahead of the May 31 Origin opener in Brisbane.
However, the jury is out on when he will play again with Manly not expected to learn the full extent of Trbojevic's injury until scans on Monday.
Mead legally tackled Trbojevic in the air because Andrew McCullough's kick had bounced but Barrett believed referees should have used discretion and penalised Brisbane.
"It's dangerous. It has not only cost us the game, it has cost us one of our best players," Barrett said.
"A bit of common sense would be good I suppose."
To add further insult, Brisbane scooped up the ball a distressed Trbojevic spilt to set up winger Corey Oates' opening try in the 64th minute.
By the time Oates had crossed for his second, Brisbane had scored three times in 11 minutes to blow out the scoreline.
"It was gutsy. It was typical Broncos," Wayne Bennett said.
But Barrett believed the better side lost.
"It was unlucky that a try that swung the game in their favour and losing Tom in the same play is pretty tough to take," he said.
"I don't think we deserved to lose that. It's very hard to take - I do think we were the better team."
Trbojevic could do no wrong in the first half.
It took him just two minutes to run off halfback Daly Cherry-Evans and score the opening try.
Seven minutes later Trbojevic threw a horror forward pass that somehow went unnoticed by officials and set up winger Jorge Taufua's try.
Manly looked on track for their third-straight win with their 14-0 halftime lead - but nothing could quite prepare the 44,127-strong crowd for what happened next.
Brisbane (7-3 record) surged to their fifth-straight win by piling on 24 unanswered second half points.
Meanwhile, the NRL - via a tweeted video - confirmed Taufua's try should have been disallowed.
"Having reviewed the available angles we can determine the ball has come out of Tom's hands forward and the on-field referee should have ruled forward pass," the NRL explained.
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