Veteran duo Brett Morris and Robbie Farah have declared themselves certain starters for the all important Game 2 of the Holden State of Origin series and allayed any concerns the Blues are underdone for Origin II.
Farah was expected to miss three weeks with a grade three AC joint injury picked up during Game One, is right on schedule in recovery and isn't expected to miss any training in the lead up to Origin II on June 17 when the Blues head into camp in Coffs Harbour on Tuesday.
"It's a game I don't want to miss," Farah said on Tuesday morning.
"It was pretty frustrating, the first 10 or so days, because I wasn't seeing much progress in the shoulder and to be honest I thought I was no chance the way I was feeling on Friday or Saturday.
"But the past 48 hours, I've seen some massive improvements and woke up on Monday morning feeling really good. I went down to training at the Tigers, had some physio done and did different sorts of tests and came through okay."
Thanks to the Wests Tigers medical staff and brother Eddie (who is the Rabbitohs' physiotherapist) Farah said they helped ease his fears of missing the game.
"When you've got an injury and you're chasing the clock, you leave no stone unturned and that's what I did. Intensive rehab in terms of physiotherapy and different sorts of injections and things like that, you try whatever's possible," Farah said.
"My brother and the physio at the Tigers were always confident they'd get me right but I kept telling them that it wasn't feeling good. But they told me it'd come good and they were right in the end."
Morris is another story entirely. After injuring his hamstring on Good Friday, the Bulldogs fullback missed the next eight weeks before making his return against former side St George Illawarra on Monday afternoon.
Making it through the entire 80 minutes to produce 134 metres and an assist in a crucial try, Morris has complete faith in his hamstring and came into Laurie Daley's team in place of Daniel Tupou.
"Obviously Monday was my first game back in a long time but it came through good and I'm very excited to be back in camp with the boys again," Morris said.
"Obviously when I got injured we had a timeframe and we came up with best case and worst case scenario and it worked out to be the best case in the time I got back on to the field, so it's just about staying on top of all the rehab to ensure it stays good.
"I have played enough footy now over the years to know what I have to do in games so I'm confident I'll be 100 per cent."
This article first appeared on NRL.com
