The NRL’s Head of Football Graham Annesley admits Lachlan Lewis should have been taken off the field immediately following a head knock in yesterday’s loss to Souths.

The Bulldogs five-eighth suffered a bad head knock while trying to tackle Rabbitohs winger Josh Mansour just five minutes into the game.

He struggled to his feet and had to be assisted by South Sydney players once he got to his feet, but remained on the field for another set before he was taken off.

He failed his HIA and Annesley told The Continuous Call Team the NRL will get to the bottom of what happened.

“I’m not walking away from it, don’t get me wrong I’m not making excuses,” Annesley said.

“We need to find out exactly what happened and we can listen to audio on Tuesday and we can follow the whole process through.

“Obviously it would have been better had the game not restarted before he left the field.

“But we need to find out why that happened.

“We’re not laying blame at anyone’s feet at this stage, we just want to get to the bottom of what happened.”

Lewis is unlikely to play for the Bulldogs in their round five clash against the Storm next week.

The NRL will issue a ‘please explain’ to Canterbury over the incident.

Click ‘play’ to hear the full interview below.

Image: NRL.