Titans fullback Jarryd Hayne is in severe doubt to take his place in the World All Stars next Friday after failing to take any part on day two of the Downer NRL Auckland Nines.
Hayne's knee swelled up after playing in both of Gold Coast's wins on day one and he was rested from the final pool match and quarter-final loss to the Eels.
Although coach Neil Henry stressed that the injury was not of a serious nature, he did have serious doubts as to whether he would be fit to take his place against the Indigenous All Stars in Newcastle on Friday.
"I don't know exactly what the injury is other than it is not serious," Henry said.
"But with any knee injury it usually requires a week off so I'd say he'd be fairly doubtful."
With Hayne, Kane Elgey and Chris McQueen missing in the first game against the Panthers the Titans went down 22-4 and then spent the first six minutes of their quarter-final against Parramatta having to defend.
Eventually they cracked when Bevan French scored the first of his two tries but McQueen was pleased with the spirit they showed with such little possession.
"It makes it tough. If you were to think about that as a regular game it's probably about 30 minutes without the ball," he said.
"It makes it tough so we did a lot of defence and eventually they cracked us.
"They've obviously got some great players out there and we did a great job holding them out for a long time but when you have that much defence to do it does get tough.
"You can't come off during defence and you feel it. Your lungs are burning, your legs are getting heavy and you're struggling to get off the line.
"Sometimes you have no choice and you have to keep working."
