Impact forward Anthony Watmough sat out NSW’s first genuine hitout on Thursday, taking extra caution in his recovery from a corked thigh.
Watmough, who suffered the injury in Manly’s NRL loss to Canterbury last Friday, ran laps of Coogee Oval while his State of Origin teammates went through ball drills.
The 29-year-old Sea Eagles star is the only Blues player who has failed to recover from injuries taken into camp.
Centres Michael Jennings (ankle) and Josh Morris (knee) both ran freely, while hooker Robbie Farah (cheekbone), lock Greg Bird (groin) and fullback Josh Dugan (ankle) also took part in the field session.
But the Blues are confident Watmough will be ready to train by Friday, leaving him in no doubt for Wednesday’s potentially series-deciding clash at Suncorp Stadium.
A NSW victory would end Queensland’s streak of seven consecutive series wins after comprehensively downing the Maroons in game one in Sydney.
“It’s a little bit more precautionary stuff with Choc (Watmough) and his cork, we don’t want it to bleed too much now,” back-rower Luke Lewis said before the session.
“He’s right on top of it. He’s going pretty well.”
Fellow second-rower Ryan Hoffman said the team physiotherapist had been the hardest working member of the Blues staff in the lead-up to game two.
“This time of year you’re always going to have blokes with a heap of niggles,” he said.
“With the things that the guys have got, with the long turnaround we’ve got coming up to Origin, it’s not going to affect them in the game.
“You’ve just got to make sure you look after them early on in the week.
“We’ve only been in camp a couple of days.
“They’re doing round the clock rehab.
“Every time I walk past the physio room they’re in there.
“I’m sure when it comes to Sunday and Monday, they’ll be fighting fit.”
The three new faces from game one – Dugan, winger Nathan Merritt and prop Aaron Woods – also trained strongly.
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