One representative five-eighth will definitely be missing while Paul Green's counterpart, Trent Barrett, hopes his own will make a rapid return when North Queensland seek to extinguish Manly's faint finals hopes.
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Green will either elevate Rory Kostjasyn into his starting line-up or draft Ray Thompson into the Cowboys' squad to replace injured State of Origin utility Michael Morgan for the clash in Townsville on Monday night.
Barrett's five-eighth dilemma is not quite as complex; NSW rookie Dylan Walker has been named at No.6, but the coach is sweating on the fitness of captain Jamie Lyon (hamstring).
There are also some doubts about whether halfback Daly Cherry-Evans will play despite being named, but Barrett is at the very least confident Walker will flourish after opposing former Souths teammate Greg Inglis in Origin II.
"The return of Dylan Walker from Origin is a real positive for us," Barrett said. "I thought he handled Greg Inglis well on Wednesday night.
"It is a tough arena State of Origin. Playing rep footy is very important for a player's development and you also bring some good habits back to the club. I have seen the change in him already."
Thompson has been plagued by a knee injury himself with Green expected to wait until Monday before deciding whether he will replace Morgan, who was hurt in the Maroons' series-sealing success on Wednesday night.
"Ray's an option for us," Green said. "It might be too early [for him] and Rory has played there before so there's a couple of good options there.
"I'm not going to risk him, but he's not far away anyway. He's a chance [on Monday] night. If he's no good he's every chance of playing next week."
The Cowboys can close the gap on the competition's top two sides, the Sharks and Storm, with victory over the Sea Eagles, who they handled easily with a 34-18 win at Brookvale Oval earlier this season.
"We are a better side now than when we last played them despite not getting the results we wanted in recent weeks," Barrett said. "Certainly In the last few weeks, particularly in that first half against Penrith when we did put together our best half of footy of the year, we did get a lot of confidence out of that."
Green has had the chance to recharge some of his troops after the bye, while Manly have bunkered down in Queensland for the week after stumbling to a 30-10 loss against the Titans in the first of a two-game northern swing.
"It's always tough when you come off the bye and it takes a while to get back into the routine of things again," Green said. "We've had a couple of good sessions – had a break too – and done some work early so it's been a good break for everyone.
"It's no different to a five-day turnaround for those [Origin] boys so we should be right."
