Parra laid low with flu ahead of Penrith date, Panther also out
The CommBank Stadium club has been struck down at the worst possible time.
MAY 6, 2022 - 11:01AM
While a looming date against the reigning premiers will always have players, coaches and supporters on red alert, Parramatta is reportedly fighting a secondary foe ahead of Friday night's fixture against Penrith with a litany of Eels' starters struck down with the flu.And with the River Suburb side entering their Round 9 clash off the back of a dismal 35-4 loss against the Cowboys last weekend, the blows appear to be raining down on the drought-stricken side.
“You’ll find that this is sweeping through a lot of clubs at this point in time and it’s the flu,” Riccio told SEN1170 listeners.
“We heard that the flu season has officially hit, and it’s hit a number of clubs.
“The Eels had five or six players unavailable to train at the beginning of this week. That’s not an ideal preparation for such a significant match tonight.”
The vaunted scribe went on to state that it was flu season for a number of other clubs, revealing that white-hot Shark Siosifa Talakai was well below his best ahead of his one-on-one Blues jersey battle with Bronco Kotoni Staggs in Round 8.
Though almost certain to be facing a weakened Eels outfit at BlueBet Stadium, Penrith has not been spared by the contagious disease either, with Scott Sorensen ruled out with a "non-COVID related illness".
The nephew of Kiwi greats Kurt and Dane Sorensen has been replaced by Matt Eisenhuth in Ivan Cleary's squad.
Kick-off in the battle of the west is scheduled for 7:55pm (AEST).
Replies
They got a team full of stars and the one with the flu is Scott fckn Sorensen?
No mystery which team the footy gods have bet on here.
gee the dreaded flu is back after missing in action for 2 years.
Flu for dummies. Thank God not Man Flu.
Lol
Oh boo hoo, one player in the team is affected by flu and they wanna make a big deal out of it.
Let's see penrith have a lot of their main players injured and do well..
So Talakai played with flu symptoms. Isn't he supposed to have isolated?
The rules keep shifting
I love it how Talakai had a poor game v Staggs with pressure on him, now comes out he had the flu.
Jake is probably sweet with no flu thank god.
Do you think BA orchestrated this flu outbreak within the camp so as to get JA in the team, LB?
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