Craig Bellamy admitted a lack of depth in the outside backs has become a problem for the Storm, after an injury on Monday night to Will Chambers ruled the Melbourne centre out for 12-14 weeks.
"Obviously we're struggling there, we had a few injuries early in the season, and having Will go down this week and Jeremy Hawkins as well with our feeder team, we're struggling a little bit for numbers," Bellamy said.
Chambers was initially upbeat after suffering the injury according to Bellamy, but after learning the injury meant he was likely to miss the entire State of Origin series it hit harder for the Queensland centre.
"When he first got the news he didn't seem to bad about it, but it probably hit home after that a little bit, knowing that he'll miss Origin. We were all probably hoping that it wasn't going to be that long, but when he want and saw the specialist after having the scans he got the bad news," Bellamy said.
"It's done now, but I know he'll work as hard as he can to get back as quick as he can."
It's not all bad news for the Storm with Cheyse Blair this week returning from injury, but Bellamy said it would be unfair on Blair to rush him into the side for Sunday's game against the Tigers.
"Cheyse Blair's coming back this week, so hopefully he can string a few games together after a few injuries as well," Bellamy said.
"Not at this stage [he won't play on Sunday], he's just played the one game and not much training either, so that would be too tough on him to throw him in."
The Storm travel to Leichardt this weekend to face the Wests Tigers in what Bellamy believes will be a tough challenge for his depleted side.
"They got off to a great start, they've lost a couple of close games since, but their attack, especially with their outside backs is very sharp. From what I've seen of their backs this year, they're probably playing as well as any other backs in the competition, especially with ball in hand," Bellamy said.
The Tigers have their own injury problems with captain Aaron Woods set to miss the next 4-6 weeks with an ankle injury.
"He's their captain and a State of Origin prop, so they're obviously going to miss him. He plays really well for long periods of time in a game, and plays long periods for a guy his size, so I'm sure they will miss him," Bellamy said of Woods.
"Like in our situation with Will however, at the end of the day you can't sit back crying about it you've just got to get on with it and put someone in there, and hopefully they'll get the job done."
