Melbourne prop Brett White has withdrawn from Ireland's Rugby League World Cup squad with foot injuries, the Storm said today.
White will join his NRL club team-mate Jeff Lima on the sidelines for the tournament after his front-row partner withdrew from New Zealand's squad with a knee injury.
Both players require off-season surgery, with White expected back in full training by mid-January and Lima mid-February.
"Brett has been troubled by persistent inflammation and soreness affecting the joints at the base of both big toes over the last few weeks," Storm high performance manager Mary Toomey said in a club statement today.
"He managed to get through games with medical and physio help, but now needs surgery to correct this problem.
"We expect him to take about eight weeks to recover."
Toomey said Lima's knee problem was worse than had been expected.
"Lima had an arthroscope on his troublesome knee on Tuesday to clean out the joint he injured leading into the finals series," Toomey said.
"Unfortunately this showed more significant damage than had been indicated on his MRI scan and he will have further surgery in approximately 10 days to repair this."
