A furious Jamie Soward left Pepper Stadium with his right arm in a sling and his short term future up in the air after a late tackle from Parramatta forward Pauli Pauli on Friday night.

Soward, who could miss up to a month with an AC joint injury in the shoulder, was livid Pauli wasn't at least sent to the sin bin and was adamant it was a professional foul.

"We have to be careful. There's legal stuff and there's illegal stuff," Soward said. "We scored a try at the end of that so there was plenty of time to sort it out. I thought it was a professional foul.

"It's the first time it has happened to me but I know for the last two years I've been watching my halves partner get hit every late tackle and we haven't got one call."

Rugby league legend Andrew Johns described it as a "cheap shot" during Channel Nine's broadcast of the local derby between the Eels and Panthers. While Soward, who has been mentioned as a Blues bolter for Origin II, didn't want to put a label on the type of shot it was, he said it was unfair that he faced a period on the sideline with Pauli only placed on report.

"You saw it, I didn't see it. But I'm pretty sure I passed the ball well before I got hit," Soward said.

"You guys will have to make your minds up on [whether it was a cheap shot. Of course [I'm filthy]. We're at a stage at the moment where you can't get put in the bin, you can't get sent off so what are we looking for? Even skip Wal, he asked the ref about 10 in the bin but nothing. He just gets put on report and we - not wrapping myself but we a lose key playmaker for 10 minutes and injured - and they just get put on report.

"I don't want to seem like a sook because I know it happens. JT (Johnathan Thurston) and the top ball players have been getting it for years because they take the ball right to the line but I know I'm walking out in a sling and he's on report. If I miss three or four weeks and we didn't get any advantage out of it at all."

Soward's injury was only compounded by the news Matt Moylan faces an extended period out with an ankle injury.

Moylan, who left the ground in a moon boot, is expected to miss up to two months of action after rupturing his medial ligement in his ankle in the first half of the loss.

The club will sweat on scans for both players to assess the damage.

"It's a significant injury. Whether it's fractured or not I don't know," Penrith coach Ivan Cleary said of Moylan's ankle.

"[Soward] went off, he had a bit of help to come back on... he's done his AC joint in his shoulder I think. We'll have to see how bad."

Eels coach Brad Arthur didn't want to comment without watching a replay of the tackle, however he was pretty pleased with the result.

"That's been a while coming," Arthur said.

"If you include tonight, our last five performances they've really played tough and tried really hard and been courageous, but we've just been down on luck at times. We did that a bit again tonight. Some of our discipline got them back into the game.

"It's a credit to the boys because our last four weeks they've stuck to our processes and gone about what they needed to do. I'm just glad for them that we got through the other side of it tonight."

Cleary said he had expected the Eels to start fast and while he was pleased with his team's comeback, he bemoaned the two points they let slip.