The rampaging wing limped off early during last night's 40-10 loss to Parramatta in Sydney, and the club today confirmed he faces up to three weeks on the sidelines with an ankle injury.
Vatuvei left the stadium on crutches and wearing a moon boot and, while the Warriors will be thankful the injury wasn't any more serious, the club's leading try-scorer is likely to be absent until round four.
Bill Tupou, a regular starter last year before losing his place to Glen Fisiiahi for the season opener, looms as the likely replacement for Saturday's clash with Sydney at Eden Park.
Already injury-hit, the Warriors have the work cut out for them if they are to bounce back from the heavy defeat to the Eels, the club's ninth straight loss dating back to last season. With Vatuvei joining Nathan Friend, Russell Packer and Sam and Sione Lousi on the sidelines, it has hardly been an ideal start to new coach Matt Elliott's tenure.
Elliott, who replaced Brian McClennan at the helm after his ship went horribly awry last season, placed an accent of defence in the off-season but his troops failed to heed the call in week one.
"We were filthy," said Elijah Taylor. "We didn't train that hard to have our first game like that. We were all disappointed."
The Warriors missed 36 tackles as Parramatta ran in seven tries, something Taylor attributed to miscommunication and poor technical choices.
"It's all about a defensive attitude and we all need to work hard on it," he said. "We need to be more patient in our tackles. We were making tackles but we were putting them on the deck straight away.
"We need to use the time and slow it right down. Get two up top and the third person gets the legs and we'll get them down slowly."
Handling errors also proved costly against last year's wooden spooners, a side who, under new coach Ricky Stuart, look to have been transformed and played some excellent football.
After falling behind 18-0, Pita Godinet provided something of a spark when he came on and helped his side clawed their way back into the game, but the Warriors were badly exposed in the final 20 minutes.
Their fitness continually came into question as they fell away in games last season, but Taylor denied that was an issue after a strenuous pre-season.
"We've forgotten about 2012 - that season's over and done with," he said. "It's early days and early season - round one."
Whether round two goes any better will the Warriors' ability to rebound from such a disappointing debut, something of which Taylor was certain.
"Tomorrow will be all about the Roosters. This will be our last day to focus on the loss, then the start of a new week and a new focus."
- Kris Shannon of APNZ
