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GROUP Nine ladder leaders Kangaroos will be without captain-coach Nathan Rose for at least a month after he underwent surgery on a broken thumb.
Rose barely lasted five minutes of Sunday's 22-all draw against Albury at Greenfield Park after breaking his thumb in the opening stages.
The star playmaker has since undergone surgery on his thumb and will be out for at least a month until he learns more.
While Kangaroos have the bye this weekend, Rose will miss the clash against his former club Southcity, as well as important showdowns against Temora and Young.
Rose indiciated it's up in the air how long he will be sidelined for.
"I've got to go back in four weeks to see how it's going and see the surgeon," Rose said.
"It will be at least four weeks and whatever it is from there. I don't know much more than that."
Rose, in his second season in charge of Kangaroos, conceded it's not ideal.
"Definitely not. I don't enjoy being on the sidelines. I'd just rather be out on the field with the boys," he said.
"It will be a tough time watching but it is what it is, I can't change it now."
Fortunately for Kangaroos, they have a ready-made replacement in Zeik Foster.
Foster returned to Kangaroos this year after nine years away, where he spent the majority of his time plying his trade in the halves.
With Kangaroos already boasting the experiencing pairing of Rose and James Smart in the halves, Foster started the year in the centres but slotted straight in to the coach's shoes after he went down.
"Zeik just slotted in there so that's a handy ready-made replacement there," Rose said.
"He's done a few training sessions at half through the pre-season and even during the season so he'll step up to the plate after the bye and he'll do a good job, same as he did on the weekend."
Kangaroos dropped their first point of the season in Albury last Sunday as they coughed up an 18-4 half-time lead for the 22-all draw.
Rose said they learnt some lessons from the draw, particularly how to play when protecting a lead.
"We didn't get off to the best start in the first half. And then I broke my thumb within the first five minutes so it threw a bit of a spanner in the works but the boys done a good job of clawing our way into the game and going in with an 18-4 lead at half-time," Rose said.
"Then it was the same story as the first half, we got off to a slow start and we were probably our own worst enemy in the second half and it proved costly.
"If we had our time again, we would have made some better decisions around our opportunities. Just be a bit more patient, we turned over cheap ball, because we were up on the scoreboard, chancing our hand a little too much and you can't afford to be doing that."
