JAMES Tamou’s immediate playing future is in doubt with the prop rushed to hospital last night after injuring his neck during the Cowboys drought-breaking ANZ Stadium win over the Bulldogs.

A week after the NRL dedicated an entire round to injured Knight Alex McKinnon, a first half collision left Tamou lying motionless on the ground before he was taken to Westmead hospital in an ambulance for precautionary scans.

Cowboys officials said Tamou had complained of “pins and needles’’ in his left arm after he walked from the field unassisted after an awkward 18th minute collision with teammate Ashton Sims.

The scare overshadowed the Cowboys’ first win at ANZ Stadium since 2006 with Johnathan Thurston laying on two tries to orchestrate the shock 24-12 win over the out-of-sorts Bulldogs.

The extent of Tamou’s suspected injury was unknown last night with the club doctor saying he could not comment until the results were returned tomorrow.

Man of the match Johnathan Thurston recounted his fear for Tamou after his individual brilliance sent the Bulldogs crashing to a rare consecutive defeat.

“It doesn’t matter who the player is,’’ Thurston said.

“When you see the replay, and someone gets a whack to the head and that neck area, you feel for them. I was a bit worried there, and we will see how he pulls up over the next couple of days.’’

The Cowboys fought back from a 6-0 deficit with 16 men to dent the Bulldogs’ premiership credentials with a scrappy 12 point win.

A night after fellow heavyweights the Roosters were embarrassed by the Knights, the Bulldogs crashed to a concerning loss that coach Des Hasler blamed on poor execution. The Bulldogs fell apart with dropped balls, poor kicks and mistimed plays helping the Cowboys move into the top-eight.

“I thought we had plenty of opportunities there,’’ Hasler said.

“But we failed to execute well enough, particularly at the start of the second half. We had five opportunties at one stage and I think we only completed one of them.’’

Hasler admitted his side was suffering in the absence of Josh Reynolds, Aiden Tolman, Chase Stanley, David Klemmer and Frank Pritchard.

“Obviously we are missing a few key players,’’ Hasler said.

“And some of them should start coming back in the next couple of weeks, we just need to consolidate that in the next couple of weeks.’’

The Bulldogs will take on the Panthers in an intriguing clash on Friday night with both premiership front runners recording back-to-back losses.

Josh Reynolds will return from a three week suspension in an addition Hasler hopes will arrest Canterbury’s slide.

Thurston was refusing to get carried away after the Cowboys surged into finals contention with rare back to back away wins.

“A win is a win,’’ Thurston said.

“And it was nice to get one here after not winning here in eight years. Having back to back wins is very important for the club and moving into the back end of the year. We are four from six at home now and the job for us now is to back it up with another win.’’

NORTH QUEENSLAND 20 (M Wright 2 A Winterstein tries J Thurston 4 goals) bt CANTERBURY 12 (M Brown J Jackson tries T Hodkinson 2 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Gerard Sutton, Alan Shortall. Crowd: 9,873.