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NSW centre Josh Dugan has been ruled out of State of Origin Game 1 due to an elbow injury he suffered in his last game for St George Illawarra.
Dugan will be replaced by long-time holder of the position for the Blues Josh Morris, who will once again be tasked with containing Greg Inglis.
Morris had previously been released to play club football this weekend, but will be a late withdrawal from the Canterbury Bulldogs side playing this afternoon to link up with the Blues, who have moved from their base in Coffs Harbour to Sydney.
Dugan was first under threat during his last game played for the Dragons after pulling up in serious pain, having taken a tumble in the in-goal. The hyper-extension of his elbow wasn’t expected to rule him out of the game, but it’s proven too much to recover in just a week and a half, and he will now turn his sites to Game 2 to be played in Brisbane.
NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley will address the media later today when the Blues arrive in Sydney.
Morris has been a strong performer in defence for the Blues, having done a great job in wrapping up Queensland’s best attacking weapon, Greg Inglis. He has held the position since 2012, but Matt Moylan and Josh Dugan’s form forced Daley to make the call to leave him out of the side.
Daley confirmed Morris would return to take over at right centre shortly after the Blues announced the withdrawal of Dugan, who experienced further problems with the elbow he hyper-extended in St George Illawarra’s loss to South Sydney in round 10.
“It’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” said Dugan.
“I aggravated it at training yesterday. It’s very disappointing but I had to do what was best for the team.”
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