Souths said that Demetriou received a positive PCR finding after he underwent a RAT test on Tuesday.
Demetriou will be unable to take his place in the box for Friday’s sold-out opening game at Allianz Stadium to finish the regular season.
Assistant coach Ben Hornby is expected to take charge of the side.
The Bunnies are already without star hooker Damien Cook after he contracted COVID-19 prior to last week’s game against North Queensland.
The seventh-placed Rabbitohs can lock up a home finals game if they beat the Roosters and leapfrog their bitter rivals into sixth spot.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Bellamy marvels at Marika
Facing a crunch NRL match against Parramatta on Thursday night, Craig Bellamy wouldn’t mind having game-breaking Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete back in the Storm ranks.
Melbourne take on the Eels at CommBank Stadium with a top four-double chance finals berth on the line.
Koroibete spent three seasons with Melbourne between 2014 and 2016, playing 58 games, although never lifting the premiership trophy. He switched codes and after making his Test rugby debut in 2017 has grown in the new code to become one of the world’s best wingers.
Against South Africa last Saturday, Koroibete set Adelaide Oval and international rugby alight when, with the Wallabies a man down, he charged like a missile 40m across field and tackled Springboks winger Makazole Mapimpi at full tilt.
He sent Mapimpi flying over the sideline, saving a certain try.
Hailed the “Flying Fijian Bullet” by another cross-code star Sonny Bill Williams after the match, Bellamy said he wasn’t surprised by Koroibete’s tackle.
“That was pretty much Marika – he doesn’t do anything unless it’s flat out,” Bellamy said.
The coach said Koroibete’s charge could hold up in any code as an example of what a player could achieve through pure effort. “It was a great example to any young footy player on how you can change a game with an effort,” he said.
“Just putting effort in – he didn’t have to know too much about the rules, he didn’t have to know too much about tactics and technical – it was just about effort and then a bit of aggression at the end.
“That’s what turns footy games – you put the effort in in your games and you’ll come up with some big plays.”
Melbourne suffered a massive blow on match eve with star halfback Jahrome Hughes ruled out with calf tightness.
They will start with Cooper Johns partnering Cameron Munster in the halves.
Johns’s last appearance was in the 19-0 win against Penrith in round 22 which was his fourth game of the year.
Alec MacDonald and Jack Howarth dropped out of the squad of 22 named on Tuesday.
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