Reece Walsh suffered a facial fracture in a nasty incident with Taylan May on Thursday night, after initial reports stated that he’d been cleared. Nathan Cleary piled more pain on the Broncos in the NRL grand final rematch, having a hand in four tries as the Panthers ran out 34-12 winners in Penrith.
The Broncos’ pain was exacerbated by a nasty facial injury to Walsh, who collided head-first with May in the opening minutes. May and Walsh clashed heads after the Panthers centre rushed in to shut down Walsh, and May was controversially penalised for the contact and put on report.
Walsh required several stitches for a nasty gash under his left eye, and never returned to the game after experiencing trouble with his vision. Reports emerged on Thursday night that Walsh had initially been cleared of a facial fracture, but the news wasn’t so good on Friday morning.
Follow-up scans have revealed that Walsh did suffer a fracture after all, which will likely rule the Broncos fullback out for 4-6 weeks. The 21-year-old won’t be able to fly back to Brisbane and will need to be driven instead. The Broncos haven’t provided a recovery time, which will be determined after Walsh visits with a specialist.
After all the back & forth – not good news for the Broncos & Reece Walsh. Scans confirm he HAS suffered a facial fracture, won’t be able to fly so will be driven back to Brisbane.
Recovery time to be determined after specialist visit, but many speculate wide range for his come back to be in 4-6 weeks.
