Hughes felt his calf 'pop' as Storm injuries mount

Melbourne No.7 Jahrome Hughes (centre) played most of the win over Gold Coast with an injured calf.

Melbourne halfback Jahrome Hughes said he felt his calf “pop” early in the 22-20 win over Gold Coast and is no certainty to play Cronulla at home on Saturday in the NRL top of the table clash

Hughes’s injury came on the back of a leg fracture to gun fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen and a knee injury to winger Sua Fa’alogo who filled in at No.1 when Papenhuyzen went off. Fa’alogo earlier left the field for an HIA, which he passed before returning.

Hughes wants to play the Sharks but said he was unsure whether he would.

“In the first 10 minutes I felt it,” Hughes told AAP after the win at Robina.

“I am not too sure exactly what it is, just that it is in my calf. I felt it pop.

“I feel as though I won’t be playing next week but I will get scans and hopefully it is not too bad. I want to play but it is still pretty sore at the moment.”

“I was keen to come off but then the boys started dropping like flies,” Hughes said, when asked why he stayed on the field.

“Poor Paps got injured again and Sua came off. I spoke to the physio and asked if I should stay on and he said so long as it doesn’t get any worse.

“I felt like a bit of a traffic cone out there for a while. I was there, but I wasn’t really there.”

Storm coach Craig Bellamy knows he will be without Papenhuyzen for an extended period while Fa’alogo was hobbling after the game. Utility Ryan Wishart could be called on or Nick Meaney switched from centre to play No.1 against the Sharks.

“We had a bad night with injuries, especially our fullbacks,” Bellamy said.

“Ryan Wishart did a good job there when he came on. When Sua went off the second time he felt something in his knee. They are not too sure what that is so we will have to get that checked out too.”

Bellamy said he was “not sure” how bad the injury to Hughes was but praised his commitment.

“Hughesy is an example of our resilience,” Bellamy said.

“He felt his calf in the first 10 minutes but because it was so early in the game and because of our injuries we asked him to hang in here.

“He didn’t run the ball much but he hung in for us and that is showing the resilience we probably lacked the last couple of years.”

The Storm have won seven matches this season, six of them by eight points or less in a sign of true grit.

“People on the outside say that we are just winning games and probably think we should be winning by heaps of points,” Hughes said.

“You’d rather win close games than not win them. There is a lot of fight in this team at the moment and we are going to need that to contend at the end of the year.”