North Queensland coach Paul Green has admitted his struggling NRL club will be without representative captain Michael Morgan for at least one more week.

The halfback was forced to sit out the Cowboy’s 30-18 loss to South Sydney on Saturday after he failed concussion protocols during the week.

Morgan was knocked out during the State of Origin decider just a week after getting concussed playing for against St George Illawarra.

“I think he’ll still probably miss next week he had his appointment last week and we’ll see how he goes,” Coach Paul Green said.

It’s a further blow for the struggling club; they desperately need their experienced half back after makeshift playmaking pair Jake Clifford and John Asiata failed to finish off Souths when they entered the last ten minutes in the lead.

“We’d like him in the side, but he is not, so we have to get on with it,’

“A lot of us did their job tonight but some didn’t.”

Salt in the wound was North Queensland outcast Ethan Lowe’s performance against the club that let him go.

During the lead up the forward said his point had already been proven following his stunning State of Origin debut but the 108 game Cowboy scored twice to make sure of it.

“I had no doubt that he meant what he said during the week”, Coach Wayne Bennett said.

“I don’t make a big deal out of players playing their old club, I know they’ll want to prove to the club why they should still be there.”

But when asked if he was happy the Cowboys had deemed his representative star surplus goods Bennett couldn’t help himself.

“I’m very happy.” he laughed.