Rebels sweat on shoulder injury to playmaker Kurtley Beale Rebels flyhalf Kurtley Beale takes a breather after after injuring his shoulder against the Brumbies at AAMI Park. Rebels flyhalf Kurtley Beale is treated by medics after injuring his shoulder against the Brumbies at AAMI Park. MELBOURNE will sweat on the result of scans on playmaker Kurtley Beale's left shoulder after the Wallabies star was injured against the Brumbies. Club officials were last night unsure on the extent of Beale's injury but are confident Test back James O'Connor will recover from concussion to face NSW in Sydney on Friday. Although Beale was able to continue for several minutes after hurting the shoulder while tackling scrumhalf Nic White, there were concerns post-match for his wellbeing. Beale was eventually substituted. "We'll have to wait to see some scans on Kurtley," Melbourne coach Damien Hill said. James is a lot better than he was. The medical staff need to scan him (Beale). He's had injury there before. O'Connor was hit in the head after blocking winger Clyde Rathbone's charge. After being assessed on the field and again on the sidelines, it was decided the fullback would not return to the match. As much as Hill would have preferred to have the Wallaby back in the action, he defended the decision to keep O'Connor on the bench. "There's a protocol in place with these things which we need to stand by," Hill said. It was in the doctor's opinion that he wasn't right and it was in the best interest of James that he didn't resume. Flanker Scott Higginbotham (neck) and centre Rory Sidey (left shoulder) were both treated on the ground before continuing. Hill was left to mull over a contrasting display after Melbourne's impressive first 40 minutes gave way to a puzzling second half display. "The first half, they played outstandingly," Hill said. They stuck to the game plan, they played with intent - the breakdown was good, the set piece was good, the defence was great. (They) got the ball to space - there were probably a few opportunities we could have capitalised on better but we were still in the game. It was a good first half. Second half, we seemed to go away from that a little bit. A little bit of panic set in around those injuries, possibly. I was really happy with that first half. In the second half, a few missed tackles, one or two numbers short at the breakdown and then choosing to run when we should have been kicking. Our composure fell away a little bit.