NSW coach Laurie Daley is facing a crunch call over the make-up of the Blues’s spine with Mitchell Moses still sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Moses was ruled out of the State of Origin series opener against Queensland, which the Blues won 22-20 in Sydney, after sustaining a minor hamstring strain at the Blues’s penultimate training session.
He will not play a match before Daley names his squad for Origin II.
Moses was left off the Parramatta team list for their King’s Birthday match with Canterbury on Monday.
Daley values Moses’s long kicking game and has said the Eels captain would be in his squad for Origin II if he could prove his fitness.
The second match of the series will be played at the MCG on June 17.
Moses was replaced by Canberra’s Ethan Strange in the Blues’s line-up in Origin I.
His absence is also offset by the return of several of Daley’s star players to the NRL.
Tolu Koula, who received NRL clearance to play after his Origin I concussion, and Haumole Olakau’atu are back for Manly’s match with South Sydney on Thursday.
After resting Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Brian To’o last week, Penrith has named the trio of Blues stars for Sunday’s clash with Wests Tigers.
AAP
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