The odds of Daly Cherry-Evans running out for Queensland in a must win State of Origin game two clash in Sydney have firmed after the halfback ran freely at training on Tuesday.
Cherry-Evans showed no discomfort as he appeared to reach full stride in the Maroons’ warm-up – the first time the Manly No.7 had joined the main group ahead of Origin II.
Queensland coach Mal Meninga will make a final call on Cherry-Evans after the training run but is not expected to officially announce it until before kick-off at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.
It remains to be seen how Cherry-Evans’ understudy Ben Hunt’s Origin selection chances are now affected.
Rookie Hunt had trained for the last week as halfback as Cherry-Evans nursed a knee complaint.
Meninga said he would consider handing Hunt an Origin debut off the bench as a utility rather than an all forwards interchange.
Meninga was also confident centre Greg Inglis (ankle) would be cleared on Tuesday afternoon.
Fullback Billy Slater (shoulder) received the green light on Monday.
Meninga said Cherry-Evans had been upbeat despite his frustrating preparations.
“DCE will go through the session today. We will test it out with defence work and see how he sits at the back end of that session,” Meninga said.
“He is upbeat which makes me positive. He knows his own body, we trust him to make the decision.”
Meninga said his preference would be to pick four bench forwards, namely Jacob Lillyman, Ben Te’o, David Taylor and Chris McQueen but kept the door open for Hunt.
“In my mind, I like to go with four forwards but if DCE plays and there is some doubt on whether he can get through the game we will look at it (a utility spot) with Ben,” he said.