{"id":684593,"date":"2026-05-21T06:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684593\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T06:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:11:15","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-billy-slater-set-to-invite-jai-arrow-into-maroons-camp-after-stars-mnd-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684593\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026: Billy Slater set to invite Jai Arrow into Maroons camp after star\u2019s MND diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater is set to invite Jai Arrow into the Maroons camp after he revealed he is battling motor neurone disease.<\/p>\n

Arrow is a former Queensland player himself and he is close to several members of the squad.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now he is set to join up with the camp when the team arrive in Sydney next Monday ahead of Origin 1, report Code Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was reportedly a sombre mood among the squad following the announcement, but Arrow\u2019s presence could change that.<\/p>\n

While Queensland are understood to be exploring other ways to honour the stricken star.<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga gave an insight into the mood in camp in an interview with NRL 360<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible news, it\u2019s definitely been spoken about in this camp,\u201d Ponga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played a lot of footy against Jai and he\u2019s one of those guy you didn\u2019t want to play against because he was so passionate and played aggressively but after the game you wanted to have a beer with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts and prayers are with him and his loved ones.<\/p>\n

\"Jai<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing about Jai is he\u2019s a strong bloke. There\u2019s a journey ahead of him but he is a man that\u2019s fit for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Maroons legend Allan Langer has also thrown his support behind Arrow, and is sure the 30-year-old will act as a source of inspiration for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something you never expect. It was so sad to see. He is such a great talent and great guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 30 years of age with a wife and young family, it\u2019s very sad to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure the football community will get behind him. Queensland will get behind him and hopefully go out and play the way that Jai loved playing for Queensland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure he will inspire the boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be great to see him when we get to Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was great for Queensland. When he pulled that Queensland jersey on, he never let us down.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if Arrow will be attendance for the opener in Sydney next Wednesday, or if the Maroons will pay tribute to him.<\/p>\n

Originally published as Billy Slater set to invite Jai Arrow into Maroons camp after star\u2019s MND diagnosis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Slater is set to invite Jai Arrow into the Maroons camp after he revealed he is battling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-684593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}