Manly star Tom Trbojevic has suffered yet another hamstring injury, with the 2021 Dally M medallist to miss the next six to eight weeks of the pre-season.
Trbojevic limped off the training field on Monday and scans confirmed he had sustained a grade 2 hamstring strain with a partial tear.
He is still set to be fit for Manly's round 1 clash with Canterbury but more troubling than the injury itself is Trbojevic's history of hamstring problems.
The 26-year-old has been sidelined by hamstring injuries in 2019, 2020 and 2022.
As a result, Trbojevic — one of the most destructive players in rugby league when fit, has failed to play more than 20 matches in each of the past four seasons.
Most recently, he underwent surgery earlier this year after re-aggravating the problem in a round-4 win over Canberra.
The Sea Eagles number one only returned for three more games before a shoulder injury ended his season.
The difference in Manly's fortunes without the New South Wales Origin star is stark.
Since 2019, they have won 68 per cent of games when he has been fit and just 34 per cent when he has been sidelined.
His virtuoso 2021 season, where he scored 28 tries in just 18 games en route to player of the year honours, is a reminder of what Trbojevic is capable of when he is healthy.
With new coach Anthony Seibold taking over and Manly desperate for a strong start to the year in order to bury memories of their disastrous fade-out in 2022, Trbojevic's fitness is paramount to the club's premiership hopes.
The Sea Eagles finished this year with seven-straight losses — a run of defeats that ended up costing coach Des Hasler his job.
