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The Broncos say Reece Walsh suffered a facial fracture in their 34-12 defeat to Penrith, leaving the star fullback unable to fly back to Brisbane.
Walsh will be driven back to Brisbane on Friday.
He was injured when he clashed heads with the Panthers' Taylan May in Penrith on Thursday night.
The contact left Walsh unable to see out of his left eye, as it closed up while he was off the field receiving stitches to a bad cut on his face.
May was placed on report after he rushed out of the line and tried to put a hit on Walsh, but avoided charge from the match review committee.
Walsh had a CT scan after the match, with the Broncos revealing the extent of the injury on Friday morning.
"Reece was taken to hospital last night after we arrived back at the team hotel and underwent a CT scan, which showed a facial fracture," Broncos head of performance Dave Ballard said in a statement.
"As a result, he cannot fly home and is being driven back up to Brisbane today by our staff.
"We will be able to determine how much footy Reece will miss once the injury settles down and after we consult a specialist in coming days.
"Reece's wellbeing is our priority and ensuring he is well looked after. We will get him safely back to Brisbane and then move forward."
May was told by referee Gerard Sutton he had a duty of care to avoid the head clash, and that he should have bent down in the contact.
But Panthers coach Ivan Cleary believed there was nothing wrong with the tackle.
"No-one wants to see the best players go off, but I just saw it as an accident," Cleary said.
"I thought he was trying to pull out of the tackle, he was directly upright, which is not how you tackle.
"If he had of bent down, he probably would have hit him in the head with his shoulder.
"Reece Walsh moves pretty fast, these things happen. I'm not too concerned about that."
Broncos coach Kevin Walters said he did not have a good view of the hit but labelled it as "just one of those things that happen".
"He (Walsh) tried to get back on, but he couldn't see. So we had to pull him from the game," Walters said.
Walsh's injury adds to the Broncos' concerns, with Adam Reynolds and Payne Haas also on the sidelines with knee injuries.
Thursday night's result moved the Panthers to fourth place on the ladder with a 2-1 win-loss record.
The Broncos are 12th, with one win from three matches.
AAP/ABC