State of Origin: Nathan Cleary to play at MCG thanks to painkilling injection

“I wasn’t coming off, it wasn’t even on my mind.

“I just hoped, at halftime, the needle would work, and it did.

“You never want to give away any cues to the opposition.

“It was good we had the week off – that definitely helped."

Cleary said he was “just lucky to have the physios and medical staff” they have at New South Wales and Penrith. “They put so much work into me.”

“He suffered a direct blow to iliac crest on the pelvic bone, and the abdominal muscles attached to that, there was also a tear to his abdominal core, which the scans confirmed,” Blues doctor Nathan Gibbs said.

Despite the injury, he was crucial in his side’s comeback victory over Queensland and was named man of the match.

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported he will receive a painkilling injection to play at the MCG after he was rested for the Panthers’ win over the New Zealand Warriors.

He did return for the Panthers’ 68-0 win over the Wests Tigers, but team physio Pete Green said Cleary still has a bruise the “size of a soccer ball”.

The Blues pulled off the biggest comeback in Origin history to beat the Maroons last time out, having been down 20-6 at one point.

Queensland fullback Kalyn Ponga was sent off for what was deemed a shoulder charge to the head, but he escaped a ban after the NRL match review committee hit him with a grade-two shoulder charge and only had to pay an A$6900 ($8343) fine, 23% of his match fee.