Queensland skipper Daly Cherry-Evans says he has no concerns about NSW targeting his recently-operated ankle after making a remarkable recovery to lead the Maroons into battle in Origin I.
Cherry-Evans passed his most significant test on Sunday night when he completed an intense session against the Ipswich Jets — just five weeks after undergoing ankle tightrope surgery which threatened to rule him out of the series opener.
But intensive rehabilitation has ensured Cherry-Evans will wear the Queensland No.7 jumper on Wednesday night and the new skipper is confident his ankle will stand-up to a Blues barrage at Suncorp Stadium.
“I feel really good this morning,” he said.
Getting through almost a full week of training has definitely given me a lot of confidence in my preparation, not just the team, but also recovering from my injury.
“It has been a really positive week, I am now getting excited about the game
“I felt our week has built up nicely, we trained at quite an intensity (against the Jets), that has instilled a lot of confidence in how I am going to hold up.
“I’m definitely fit, I walked in here saying I was 100 per cent so I must be sitting here at 105 or 110 per cent by now.”
Cherry-Evans admits he wasn’t always so confident he would take his place in the Queensland side looking to atone for last year’s 2-1 series loss.
“To be honest my nervous moments about whether it would hold up were in the earlier stages, when you can’t really move around and are restricted to crutches,” he said.
That is when you are a little short sighted and think, ‘How the hell am I going to be able to play in a couple of weeks?’
“But recovery programs are just so advanced these days in rugby league, there is so much available for you to use, I am lucky to have a great support team back at Manly and also when I came into camp in Queensland.
“My narrow focus was to get back as quick as possible with the intention to play Origin I and I was lucky to have everyone on board including the doctors.”
Queensland coach Kevin Walters has banned Maroons players from talking about NSW but Cherry-Evans insists they have done their homework on the Blues.
“Don’t get me wrong, we certainly haven’t disregarded NSW as a side,” he said.
“We have done our preparation.
“Make no mistake we have (looked at NSW), but what we have done is just try and make more of an emphasis on our preparation in this camp.
“While it is a little bit of a left-field tactic I really do feel as though it has been a positive for this young group.
“We have really narrowed our focus on what we have to do on Wednesday.”