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June 13, 2026 \u2014 11:27am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Mark Nawaqanitawase is set to make his Origin debut<\/a> in game two at the MCG next week after NSW centre Casey McLean was ruled out after suffering an injury at training on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n McLean warmed up with the team in Gosford on Saturday morning before going down with a quadriceps strain about 15 minutes into the session.<\/p>\n Physios and trainers worked with McLean on the field as the rest of the squad trained, but the 20-year-old was officially ruled out an hour later.<\/p>\n The loss of McLean is a huge blow for NSW, after the Penrith centre played an important role in the Blues\u2019 second-half comeback in game one after coming on as a replacement for a concussed Tolu Koula.<\/p>\n McLean was also recovering from an ankle injury suffered in the Panthers\u2019 win over the Tigers on June 7<\/a>, but was tracking and training well.<\/p>\n NSW manager Frank Ponissi said medicos thought McLean\u2019s injury would sideline him for seven to 10 days.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, Casey McLean has been ruled out of State of Origin game two. This morning during training early in the session, he strained a thigh to his right leg, which is the opposite side to his ankle,\u201d Ponissi said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur medical staff believes the ankle was fine, but obviously, he needed to train this morning to get through, so this has come totally as a shock and unexpected. He\u2019s obviously very disappointed … Our medical staff believe it\u2019s a seven-10 day injury in terms of return to play, which obviously rules him out of Wednesday night\u2019s game at the MCG.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Nawaqanitawase now has his opportunity to make his impact in the Origin arena, with the former Wallaby set to be named as McLean\u2019s official replacement.<\/p>\n The 25-year-old has played on the wing in every game he\u2019s started for the Roosters this year and has limited experience at centre.<\/p>\n NSW are due to travel to Melbourne on Saturday afternoon ahead of game two of the series on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n More to come<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9913f9b506139be653ecae506051e77f083a6c25.jpeg\")
Mark Nawaqanitawase is poised to start for NSW on Wednesday.Steven Siewert<\/p>\n![\"Casey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/989dc947aa4fe7abda641559bbfc8c111703fb7d.jpeg\")
Casey McLean has been ruled out of Origin II.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c5dde86ec716b93a3ea5979173bdc5ed51a76ebd.jpeg\")
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Billie Eder<\/a> is a sports reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"June 13, 2026 \u2014 11:27am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-733159","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\/733159","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=733159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}