Luckless South Sydney hooker Brandon Smith has been re-injured in his NRL comeback and looks set for another extended period on the sidelines.
With just over five minutes remaining in the Rabbitoh’s Round 18 loss to Manly, Smith was the victim of a questionable tackle by Manly prop Matt Lodge, with coach Wayne Bennett later saying the Kiwi international had likely suffered another serious knee injury.
“He’s done a medial ligament, he’ll be six to eight weeks from that tackle,” Bennett said post-match suggesting it’s up to the NRL to make a decision on what happens next.
Smith, 29, was playing his first NRL game since being injured in a hip drop tackle in Round 26 last season that saw former Canberra Raiders captain Elliott Whitehead suspended for three weeks.
MORE: Kiwi international ‘nervous’ as NRL injury return looms
Smith required ACL and MCL reconstruction surgery following the Whitehead tackle and has spent the past ten months out of the game—a path he now seems set to tread once more.
“That’s a hip drop for sure, one hundred percent,” NSW and Australian legend Steve Roach declared while calling the Manly-Rabbitohs match yesterday for Fox Sports.
“That was a bad one.”
“We haven’t rubbed this tackle out of the game,” Warren Smith added furiously alongside Roach.
“The suspensions need to be six weeks, eight weeks, to get rid of it!”
There was no immediate stop in play and following replays neither the referee nor bunker took action against Lodge.
The NRL Match Review Committee has laid no charges from yesterday’s Round 18 matches.
Brandon Smith suffered a suspected MCL injury - contact mechanism on outside of lower leg fairly textbook for MCL/syndesmosis damage.
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) July 6, 2025
Early assessments from the Rabbitohs suggest he will miss 6-8 weeks - likely moderate to high grade injury. Rough in his first game back. pic.twitter.com/JoEL09EiwZ