South Sydney enforcer Sam Burgess could face four months on the sideline with an ankle injury suffered in Saturday night's 36-24 NRL loss to the Bulldogs.

Burgess left the field in the 63rd minute with the Rabbitohs in the midst of a Chris Sandow-inspired comeback at ANZ Stadium and club medico Errol Alcott confirmed he had suffered a syndesmosis-type injury to his left ankle.

"It's potentially pretty serious ... the worst case is it's a syndesmosis injury (which) often requires surgery, a screw (and would sideline him for) four months," Alcott explained.

"But at the moment we're calling it a syndesmosis-type injury, it doesn't in any way mean the ligaments are actually damaged."

Burgess is likely to go for scans on Monday, where South Sydney fans will be hoping it is just a serious ankle injury, and allow him to return in just over a month.

Souths trailed by just two points at the time, but conceded a try to Aiden Tolman in the subsequent set after Burgess' injury which extended the Bulldogs' lead to eight points and killed off a game in which Ben Barba dominated.

Barba's remarkable day started at 5am when he welcomed his second child, Bronte, to partner Ainslie Currie.

Barba then went home and managed four hours sleep while he looked after his other girl, Bodhi, before taking the Rabbitohs apart.

"It's all a blur at the moment," Barba said after the game.

"It's been a long day, I can't wait to go home now and see them and hopefully have a quiet night's sleep.

"I'm still just over the moon."

The 21-year-old celebrated the first of two tries with a salute to his new-born girl and followed it up by setting up tries to Michael Ennis and Steve Turner before icing the game in the 76th minute with a brilliant 40 metre effort where he outran Sandow.

If not for Barba, it would have been Sandow's night.

The diminutive halfback scored a try, kicked a 40/20 and booted sideline conversions as the Rabbitohs clawed their way back from 20-6 down to 20-18 before the Burgess injury drastically halted their momentum.

It was an impressive performance from Sandow, who is reportedly considering an $800,000, three-year offer from Parramatta.

"I thought Chrissy played really well," South Sydney coach John Lang said.

"(But) we're just not consistent enough, we're not playing the 80 minutes."

Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore was impressed with his side's ability to respond after Souths drew within two points - but admonished the team for allowing Nathan Merritt to score in the 80th minute.

"When we were put under the pump, we responded," he said.

"I think it shows there's a fair bit of belief in the side and we got through the simple things."

Burgess was not the only player to finish with an injury.

Debutant fullback James Roberts left the game with a suspected fractured forearm, while in the first half Bulldogs forward Michael Hodgson fainted moments after taking the field and was helped to the sheds, where he stayed for the rest of the match.

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