‘The NRL are dealing with that’: Dragons may be forced to ramp up David Klemmer bid following devastating injury update on young forward

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan says he’ll leave it with the club to decide whether to ramp up their bid to sign veteran prop David Klemmer, with St George Illawarra in desperate need of quality middles after a young star suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury against the Bulldogs on Saturday night.

Klemmer has been linked with a move to the Red V and did not play for the Tigers in reserve grade on Saturday, with speculation the former international front-rower could switch clubs as soon as next week.

The Dragons are already without Francis Molo who has requested an immediate release from the club, while there are fears local junior Ryan Couchman ruptured his ACL and could miss the rest of the season.

“It looks like he’s done his ACL, so it’s not real good,” Flanagan said.

“He’s a young kid at the start of his NRL career and he’s such a competitor. It’s not a great thing.”

New recruit Emre Guler is on report for a hip-drop tackle on Jacob Preston, although Flanagan isn’t too concerned about a potential ban which would see him miss next week’s match against Souths.

If he is charged, Klemmer’s signature becomes even more crucial as they look to bank their first win of the year, although the club can’t sign the veteran until they move Molo off their books.

“That’s something for the club to deal with,” the veteran coach said.

“I’m here to coach the footy team. I don’t know where it’s heading, the NRL are dealing with that.

“It’s not my business, to be honest.”

The injury was the low point in their 28-20 loss to the Bulldogs, with Flanagan pleased with their attack late on but disappointed with their poor completion rate.

“We beat ourselves,” he said.

“There were too many yardage errors and we didn’t give ourselves a chance by dropping the ball on kicks and coming out of our own end.”

Meanwhile, Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was thrilled with his side’s start to the season and isn’t too worried about skipper Stephen Crichton who was placed on report for leading with the knees in a tackle and then limped off in the final 10 minutes with cramps.

“I didn’t look at it too many times because I was just trying to see how they scored,” Ciraldo said.

“He was going across to save the try and I think his knee hit the ball so I don’t think there’s too much to worry about.

“I thought it (the win) was awesome for us.

“It gave us a chance to show everyone what we’ve done over the pre-season.

“We got to 28-6 and I was pretty proud with what we’d done, but it was good because we had to win it again in the last 20 minutes and I think we showed a lot of bravery and had to stay calm when the momentum went back to them.”