Murray out for up to eight weeks in fresh blow to battling Rabbitohs

South Sydney and the NSW Blues have been dealt a huge blow with inspirational forward Cameron Murray set to miss up to eight weeks with a hip flexor injury.

With South Sydney’s season already in freefall, Murray’s injury compounds a disastrous campaign for the Bunnies, who will struggle to field a team this weekend given the number of injuries at the club.

The injury is also a big blow for new Blues coach Michael Maguire, who had earmarked Murray as a certain selection for game one of the State of Origin series, which starts on June 5. Maguire names his team for the opening game of the series in three weeks’ time.

Murray isn’t expected to be available until the final game of the series, at best.

For South Sydney, Murray’s injury has also been compounded by news that fullback Jye Gray and halfback Dean Hawkins are also facing lengthy stints on the sideline with ankle and quadriceps injuries respectively.

The Rabbitohs already have Campbell Graham, Alex Johnston, Tyrone Munro, Lachlan Ilias and Junior Tatola unavailable through injury. They will be boosted by the return of Latrell Mitchell from a three-game suspension for a dangerous tackle on the Warriors’ Shaun Johnson almost a month ago.

The news of Murray’s injury comes just days after coach Jason Demetriou was shown the door following a terrible run of results.

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