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.
4. Bradman Best (Newcastle Knights)
Best is a risky selection, both given his consistency and his injury issues, but if it comes off, there are few players who present with the level of X-Factor he has.
The 24-year-old who was born on the Central Coast has been a prodigious talent for as long as his name has been known. He once played fullback for the junior Blues as the biggest player on the field, and is now starting to harness that enormous talent and potential.
His form to start 2026 has been solid too.
Averaging 143 metres, three try assists, nine tackle busts just four matches into the campaign. His defence also seems to have gone up a level under the coaching of Justin Holbrook.
He has two games under his belt, one in 2023 and one in 2024, for the Blues, and it wouldn't be an enormous surprise to see him add to that tally this year.
2021 was a long time ago. I doubt Turbo will even be fit, come Origin, let alone be capable of playing SOO again.