Maroons star misses training after Slater bites back at ‘totally irrelevant’ Origin question
Queensland superstar Harry Grant was absent from the first State of Origin training session due to being sick.
It’s a long-running joke that you can almost set your watch to each year.
Queensland’s State of Origin camp will be struck down by some kind of injury or illness in the lead-up to the series opener.
And it took less than a day for the Maroons to fall into line this time around.
Superstar hooker Harry Grant missed Tuesday’s first training run due to illness.
He was a notable absentee as media arrived at Red Hill to view the 2024 squad together for the first time.
Word out of Queensland camp is Grant is suffering from a 24-hour bug and should be fine to join his teammates on Wednesday.
The Maroons famously thrive when going into a game or a series as the underdog.
In recent times it was supercoach Wayne Bennett who pulled off one of the great Origin heists in 2020, taking what was dubbed the “worst Queensland team ever” to a series victory over the sorry Blues.
But don’t try telling current coach Billy Slater who’s the underdog and who’s the favourite to win.
“I could not care less,” Slater bit back at one journalist at Monday’s press conference
“That is totally irrelevant to me, so I couldn’t care.”
Queensland was installed as the early favourite to win the 2024 series with bookmakers.
Grant has been named to start on the bench in next Wednesday’s series opener in Sydney.
He provides a lethal one-two punch with Ben Hunt in the dummy-half role.
The rest of the Maroons squad reportedly got through Tuesday’s training run unscathed.