It continues a frustrating run for the big man, who had already missed two games when a cut on his knee became infected.

"Tim's done his PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), so we're looking at a 10-12 week injury," captain Luke Garland revealed.

It means the Panthers will go into Saturday's home game against Albury with an undersized ruck combination of Wollongong recruit Aidan Cook and Kai Davies.

The injuries keep coming for the Panthers, with top class defender Brant Dickson to miss another game with a hamstring complaint, while Adam Butler was set to celebrate his 250^th senior game, but rolled his ankle at training on Thursday night.

"It was just a forward line entry and he stepped on a team-mate's foot, he would love to have played, but is meticulous in his preparation and it wasn't worth the risk," Garland added.

The premiers have just the two wins from five games and are coming off one of their biggest upset losses in years against Corowa-Rutherglen.

The Panthers also had a handful of players unavailable and there's a perception outside the club of a premiership hangover, following that 2019 win over Wangaratta.

"I don't think there's a lack of hunger, it's more that we just don't have enough players in form, we've just had no continuity with players either injured or unavailable," Garland suggested.

"As a team, we just need to start building a bit of form and just hang in there, make sure we don't fall off the pace."

Garland himself has been named in the best in three of his four games, while Marty Brennan's been the standout.

IN OTHER NEWS

The Panthers are a clear outsider against Albury and given they meet Wangaratta, there's every chance of turning four-five at the halfway mark.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: