Lachlan Galvin won't be tasked with taking sole charge of Canterbury's attack even as he prepares for a breakthrough first chance as an NRL halfback.
Saturday's opponents St George Illawarra announced on Friday afternoon that their Queensland representative Valentine Holmes will miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder issue.
The injury was suffered during last week's loss to the Sydney Roosters and looms as a big blow to the 11th-placed Dragons' hopes of keeping pace with the top eight.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was tight-lipped earlier in the day when asked whether he would continue tinkering with his halves combination as the club prepares to roll out a third unique pairing in as many games.
Galvin and Toby Sexton are competing to line up in the halves next to Matt Burton, a selection dilemma with no clear answer but that appears key to the third-placed Dogs' premiership hopes.
Galvin had been used from the bench in full-strength Canterbury teams since his highly publicised mid-season move from Wests Tigers before being rested last week.
Against the Dragons, Galvin has been entrusted with the coveted No.7 role for the first time in his 36-game career, leaving Sexton in reserve grade.
The halfback is typically the team's attacking general, but Ciraldo expects five-eighth Burton to lighten the load on Galvin.
"We think we've built a system over the last little period where it doesn't quite matter if you are wearing the six or the seven, there's equal responsibility there," Ciraldo said.
"Lachie's got the seven on his back and he's going to have to plug into the system and play his role in that, but it's awesome to have 'Burto' there who's played over 100 games, played for NSW, played for Australia."
Ciraldo said "of course" there was a path into the NRL side this year for Sexton, who was instrumental in the Bulldogs' hot start to the year, but is joining French side Catalans in 2026.
The coach claimed not to have considered halves combinations beyond round 20.
"It's an easy thing to say but we don't want to look too far past this week," he said.
"(Droping Sexton) is probably one of the hardest decisions we've had to make because Toby's worked really hard.
"He wanted to get back and work on the things that we've been talking to him about.
"It's a long year, we need a deep squad, we're going to need our whole squad working towards improving every day towards the back end of the year."
Canterbury will bring Sitili Tupouniua in for his first game since round eight after the recruit suffered a hamstring injury while suspended.
Centre Bronson Xerri is expected to return to the backline next week as groin tightness sidelined him from the Dragons game.
