England's newest NRL star AJ Brimson has suffered a "serious" shoulder injury, compounding their misery at being whitewashed in the Ashes.
Coach Shaun Wane and his team were left feeling gutted for his Gold Coast Titans fullback Brimson, who suffered bad damage to his acromioclavicular joint and had to limp off in the opening 10 minutes of England's 30-8 defeat at Headingley.
It was only Brimson's second start for the country of his mother's birth after the former Australia nines player and Queensland Origin fullback had switched allegiance to England earlier in the year.
"He's really, really damaged his AC, so bad, and they are really, really painful," said Wane.
"He was so gutted to come off, he is a brave kid and he's loved his time here. He has been a great addition to our squad. I've been really impressed."
Wane had brought the 27-year-old into the second-Test team at Everton and Brimson definitely provided England with some extra spark.
And his early loss proved calamitous for the hosts on on Saturday after Wane had to redeploy a key weapon, Mikey Lewis, for more than 70 minutes in the fullback position he hadn't played in for two years.
"That hurt us a lot, there is no doubt about that – that hurt the way we do everything, but I thought we adapted well," said Wane.
Brimson is not the only English NRL player to suffer in the series, with Newcastle's Dom Young having suffered a broken bone in his foot during the second Test, caused by a mid-air collision challenge from Reece Walsh which earned the Australian fullback a sin bin.
Young couldn't play at Headingley, and neither could North Queensland Cowboys' John Bateman, whose ankle injury, sustained in the lead-up to the second Test, kept him out of both the Liverpool and Leeds contests.
