Titans interim co-coach Terry Matterson has cleared Ben Nakubuwai of any serious injury after the interchange forward was taken from the field on a medi-cab following a high shot from Roosters enforcer Zane Tetevano.
With his side trailing by four points midway through the second half, Tetevano took it upon himself to swing the momentum and rushed out of the line to smash the second-gamer.
The referees initially ruled a knock-on but quickly reversed their decision once it became clear that Nakubuwai was in a bad way, with replays suggesting Tetevano had made contact with his jaw.
"He's not real good…he doesn't know what's happened," Matterson said after his side's heartbreaking 20-16 loss at Allianz Stadium.
"He'll take a bit of a while to recover – he's OK, he's in the sheds – but he's got no memory. I told him a few porky pies and told him he scored another try so he was pretty happy with that. He'll be OK, but it wasn't nice; he didn't miss him."
While the incident didn't look good, Matterson felt the penalty was sufficient and was comfortable to see Tetevano stay on the field.
"With what's happened in the past, probably not," he replied when asked whether it should have been a send-off.
"I think that's the way they're going now so I think it's important that we don't have a knee-jerk reaction and we get consistency in what we're doing."
Tetevano was placed on report for the tackle and will face a nervous wait before the charge sheet comes out on Sunday afternoon, but according to his coach, he shouldn't have anything to worry about.
"I thought it was a really good tackle," Trent Robinson said.
"I didn't like to see the player coming off the field like that – I thought that was really tough – but it wasn't a loose tackle. He stepped in, tackled him, wrapped with the arms and went all the way to the ground.
"Zane was really clear about the tackle; there was no malice in the tackle. It was a big, strong, firm tackle and then I'm not sure about the whiplash that caused that (the injury) but none of us liked seeing him move off the field like that."
