The Melbourne Storm will be without co-captain Dale Finucane for the start of the 2021 NRL season.
The lock-forward tore his calf at training on Tuesday and he confirmed to SEN 1170’s Katie Brown that he is set to miss over a month of football.
“I was just finishing training off actually, doing some light acceleration work,” Finucane told Brown at the NRL season launch.
“Just sort of felt a little pop in my calf, I’m looking at four to six weeks at the moment.
“I’m doing my rehab and I’m getting back as soon as I can.”
Finucane told Brown that he knew instantly what had occurred.
“I was just accelerating and as I was gaining a bit of momentum and I just felt a bit of pain in the calf,” he added.
“I suppose that was just the muscle fibres tearing in my calf. I knew immediately that I’d done it.
“As I went to walk away, I was limited to as I could walk. I went off and talked to the physio and they confirmed the tear.”
Despite the setback, the 29-year-old spoke of the excitement he has about taking on the leadership role in 2021.
“It (being named co-captain) was really good, really exciting,” Finucane said.
“Craig (Bellamy) spoke to myself and Jesse (Bromwich) about a month before we went back to training.
“I got the call from him explaining that it was unlikely Cameron was going to continue at our club.
“He spoke about the fact that he was going to go with co-captains, which is really exciting as it gives Jess and I the opportunity to share the role.
“I think this year it’s going to be more of a collective role in terms of our whole leadership group helping out.”
The Storm open the 2021 NRL season against South Sydney on Thursday March 11.
