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By Luke Turgeon - The Titans are bracing for another injury nightmare, with inspirational hooker Nathan Friend to undergo scans today on a possible broken collarbone.

Described by Titans coach John Cartwright as the `heart and soul' of his wounded footy team, Friend suffered the injury to his right shoulder when Panthers wrecking machine Frank Pritchard drove him into the Skilled Park turf with about 10 minutes left in Saturday night's 36-22 loss.

In a herculean effort, Friend rose to his feet in obvious distress, toughing it out for the rest of the match.

The gutsy head-gear wearing warrior was doing his best to remain positive yesterday at the Titans recovery session at North Burleigh, hoping it would clear.

But he conceded there was the possibility of a fracture.

"I haven't thought about what may be if it is broken," said Friend. "I am just hoping it is a bit of a bruise."

The loss of Friend could be a fatal blow for the Gold Coast, who may also be without five-eighth Mat Rogers for Saturday's clash in Canberra.

Dual international Rogers is on report for a high shot on Panthers winger Lachlan Coote in the 25th minute.

Even if he is cleared by the NRL match review committee, Rogers could yet be outed with a rib cartilage injury.

Rogers has already served a month's ban for a dangerous throw earlier this season.

"It wasn't a swinging arm. I haven't seen the tackle but I know I didn't hit him with my forearm. There is nothing I can do about it now."

If Friend has damaged his collarbone he will face four to six weeks on the sidelines, joining the likes of co-captains Scott Prince (broken arm) and Luke Bailey (ankle ligaments) and backrower Mark Minichiello (ankle ligaments) in the Gold Coast injury ward.

North Queensland-bound rake Clint Amos would enter the frame for the No.9, along with under-20 playmaker Kayne Lawton and Seagulls hooker Billy Ngawini.

The loss of Friend would prove to be a cruel twist of fate as the Titans hunt just three more wins from their seven remaining matches to qualify for an historic first finals berth. Friend has been a revelation this season so far, playing every minute of every game and topping the NRL tackle count.

On Saturday night alone, Friend combined with workaholic backrower Anthony Laffranchi to make almost a third of their side's total tackles. "He is pretty well becoming the heart and soul of the place," said Cartwright yesterday. "You look (at the Panthers game) and it was hard to find a player who really played at their best. But Friendy just turns up and plays the same every week."

Cartwright said he was extremely disappointed with the Titans' defensive effort against the Panthers. The Coast missed a staggering 46 tackles according to official NRL stats, capping off a horror month that has seen them leak a huge 148 points from their past five games.

"All it takes is a couple of errors, guys coming out of the line and doing things they shouldn't be doing and it leads to tries," said Friend.

"You just can't win games when you allow people to score that much. We score enough points to win games but defence is letting us down.

"You have to stay positive, there are seven weeks to go and we have to come out with the right attitude and hopefully it will turn around."

Cartwright said the Titans must put the Panthers loss behind them and focus on gruelling back-to-back away trips to the nation's capital and then to Melbourne.

"It is gone now, we can't dwell on it," said Cartwright, who did not rule out changes to his starting side. "We have to get ourselves ready as we have a very tough two weeks with Canberra in Canberra and Melbourne in Melbourne."

"We will have a few more answers (with regards to our finals situation) in a few weeks."  GC Bulletin