Triumphant Blues duo Hudson Young and Ethan Strange have been cleared to take on the Bulldogs on Saturday, while the Sharks will be without one of their State of Origin stars for the clash against the Dolphins.

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart said his NSW players looked a lot better on Friday morning than they did on Thursday when they returned home following their celebrations after a famous win in Brisbane.

Strange was in doubt for the decider after he picked up an ankle injury in camp, but he’s been given the green light to back up along with Young, who was fantastic in all three games on the left edge.

“I wouldn’t risk it (if he wasn’t fine),” Stuart said of his five-eighth who came on for the final 15 minutes.

“We haven’t really even spoken too much about it, so he’s fine to go. He got a few minutes on the field at the back end of the game, so he’ll be right to play.

“(Hudson) got a bad whack to the back, so he was pretty sore yesterday. His three 80-minute performances were marvellous. He’s been such a high contributor to the Blues.

“I think he’s proven now to everyone that he’s a main-stayer (at that level). He has such a high contribution and workload, his effort areas are very high off the football. It’s everything you want in an Origin player.

“Laurie (Blues coach Laurie Daley) showed so much confidence in him, and when you show confidence in a player and a guy like Hudson, he’ll repay you.”

Stuart also said veteran Josh Papalii was a “real chance to start” in his first game back from a calf injury as the Raiders look to knock off the Bulldogs in Sydney.

Meanwhile, the Sharks will have Blayke Brailey and Addin Fonua-Blake on deck after they played limited minutes off the bench for NSW.

But they’ll be missing Briton Nikora after he got through a mountain of work for the Maroons, with Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon backing Billy Burns to continue his stellar form on the right edge.

“Brit got knocked out around a bit,” he said.

“He had something like 49 tackles in about 65 minutes and had a category two HIA. For Brit’s performance level, I really thought he put it out there the other night.

“We won’t be taking a risk with Brit. It’s really simple for us the way that Billy Burns is playing at the moment. We trust Billy, and he’s been one of our better performers.”

Originally published as ‘Wouldn’t risk it’: Raiders duo cleared to play this weekend as Sharks rule out one of their Origin stars