Friday, June 3, 2011

Hodges out, Inglis touch and go

Updated June 2, 2011 15:32:00

Star centre Justin Hodges concedes he will miss State of Origin II, while Queensland team-mate Greg Inglis has expressed serious doubts over his own fitness.

Hodges (hamstring) and Inglis (hip) both missed the Maroons' 16-12 victory over the Blues in the opener at Lang Park, and it was hoped they would be available for the return contest on June 15 in Sydney.

But Hodges said it would be the "smart thing to do" to rule himself out, while Inglis admits he might not be fully up to speed and ready to answer a call from Mal Meninga, with the side to be announced on Tuesday.

The Queensland coach is desperate to regain the services of his strike weapons following a shoulder injury to North Queensland three-quarter Willie Tonga.

"If I got selected, I wouldn't be able to train all week and it's not ideal. I'd rather be training from day dot," Hodges said.

Hodges suffered two hamstring tears playing for Brisbane against Penrith three weeks ago and was initially told he would be sidelined for six to eight weeks.

While the second Origin game is still two weeks away, Hodges, who has a history of hamstring problems, had already ruled out playing Origin II in his own mind.

"It's the smart thing to do. I don't want to go out there and let anyone down, that's the most important thing to me," Hodges said.

"It was a pretty big tear but it's coming along well, so we'll see how it is in a few more weeks."

Broncos coach Anthony Griffin agreed Hodges would be underdone.

"I don't think he'd be ready," he said.

"We're committed to Origin as a club, we want our players to play Origin and the players want to play.

"But if they pick him and take him into camp, they'll only find out what we've already found out.

"You can't magically just pick him in Origin and expect him to be ready to play earlier than what he is."

Inglis will make his comeback from a hip injury in the Rabbitohs' clash with his former club Melbourne on Sunday.

The Olympic stadium match will be the superstar's only chance to prove he is ready to play for Queensland and Inglis says the selector may not be convinced he is ready.

"They'd probably say no but, at the end of the day, you go into camp 10 days early so you can put more Ks in your legs over those first few days," Inglis said.

The 24-year-old, who had off-season surgery on the same hip, said his comeback had been put back a week but he was ready for action against the Storm, who released him in the wake of last year's salary-cap scandal.

"If it was last week ... I would have been rushing back a week early," Inglis said.

"We spoke to medical staff and we decided to put it off for another week and obviously get out there and do more running.

"This week and towards the end of last week I've been doing a bit of running, so it's just getting back up there ... it's totally different compared to match fitness.

"I'm not sure how I'll go in time out there (on the field) until I'm put to the test."

- ABC/AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-league, nrl, australia, nsw, redfern-2016, sydney-2000, sydney-south-2000

First posted June 2, 2011 13:38:00


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