Canterbury Bulldogs and New South Wales Blues star Stephen Crichton has suffered a potentially serious shoulder injury and is in significant doubt for the opening game of this year's State of Origin series.
The star centre, who suffered the injury during a Good Friday loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, will need scans to confirm the extent of the injury, but coach Cameron Ciraldo admitted it wasn't looking good.
If he needs surgery, Origin 1 is a pipe dream, and the rest of the series could be gone too. If he can rehabilitate the injury, he may be a chance of returning before Origin 1, but whether he would be thrown into that fire, lacking match fitness, is a decision for Laurie Daley to answer.
While there are plenty of candidates to assume the vacant spot in the centres, there is a clear favourite.
Assuming incumbents Brian To'o and Latrell Mitchell will be picked, and either Thomas Jenkins or Jacob Kiraz will win the race for the other wing spot, here are the players in the mix to line up in the centres if Crichton is unavailable for the opening game of the series when New South Wales will attempt to recapture the shield from Queensland after the dramatic failure of 2025.
8. Bronson Xerri (Canterbury Bulldogs)
At this time last year, the questions were genuinely starting to be asked. Could Xerri be in the mix for State of Origin?
In the end, he wasn't afforded the opportunity, but remained in excellent form to finish the season for the Bulldogs.
A move to the other side of the park and Canterbury's ongoing discussion around who should be picked in the spine has seen him drop out of the side over the last fortnight.
Given how they looked when Crichton was off the park yesterday though, surely Xerri will now be recalled by coach Ciraldo, and if he finds his top form in a hurry, there is no reason to suggest he won't be on the selection radar for Daley come Game 1.
He has all the skills at both ends of the park, and it'd be easy to hazard a guess that without his four-year suspension, he would have already played for New South Wales at some point.
A big watch on team lists this Tuesday.
2021 was a long time ago. I doubt Turbo will even be fit, come Origin, let alone be capable of playing SOO again.