Watmough pulls out of Four Nations
Manly enforcer Anthony Watmough is the latest player to pull out of next month's Four Nations tournament with the Australian backrower set to undergo ankle surgery later this month.
Sea Eagles officials confirmed Watmough - who played for the Kangaroos in the mid-year Test against New Zealand in Melbourne - would not be available for selection after he struggled to get on the field through the final rounds of the season due to the injury.
He along with teammates Jamie Lyon, Jason King and Brent Kite were all added to the Kangaroos train-on squad on Monday, which will gather for its first training session in Sydney on Wednesday.
Watmough is the third player named in the preliminary squad to declare his unavailability, with centre Greg Inglis and Josh Morris already indicating they would be going under the knife to fix long-term shoulder injuries.
While Inglis won't be forced to travel to Sydney on Wednesday to be officially ruled out by the Kangaroos medical staff, it is unclear whether Watmough and Morris will be forced to front.
Watmough's decision to opt out of the end of season tournament prompted Manly officials to take the unusual step of pleading no contest to two NRL charges against him and hooker Matt Ballin.
Ballin and Watmough both accepted one match suspensions following grade one dangerous contact charges - Ballin's for a late and high shot on St George Illawarra five-eighth Jamie Soward and Watmough for dropping knees on Dragons skipper Ben Hornby.
With the Sea Eagles bowing out of the finals race thanks to their 28-0 loss to the Dragons on Sunday, Watmough and Ballin will both be able to serve their suspensions during next year's pre-season, with one trial match allowed to be counted in suspensions.
The guilty verdict also served to reduce the amount of carry-over points lumped on both players, with Watmough to start the season with a clean slate and Ballin to have 20 carry-over points.
Penrith duo Mosada Iosefa and Tim Grant both accepted early guilty pleas, freeing them to play in Saturday night's semi-final against the Sydney Roosters.
Warriors halfback Brett Seymour will also miss just the one trial game after using his seven-year incident free discount to reduce his early plea on a striking charge to a one-match ban.
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