Melbourne Storm hooker Harry Grant has been ruled out of State of Origin 3.
It was a hamstring injury which originally kept him out of Game 2, forcing Andrew McCullough to be called into the Queensland Maroons side, and it will be the same injury that will keep him out of the third match between New South Wales and Queensland.
Grant, who has quickly become one of the best hookers in the NRL, suffered the injury during the Storm's Round 15 clash against the Wests Tigers, which they won 66 points to 16.
The superstar has been hampered by injury all season, missing the first four rounds, and then more games in between Round 9 and his return at Origin 1.
To this point, Grant has made just seven appearances for Melbourne with six of them from the interchange bench.
It's unclear at this stage how long the injury will keep Grant out for, however Melbourne have advised the hamstring is yet to recover sufficiently for Grant to be picked in Queensland's team attempting to avoid a whitewash, their first in two decades.
Grant's loss is a major blow for the Maroons, who suffered at dummy half in Game 2. That was despite the selection of Dragons duo Andrew McCullough and Ben Hunt to fill the void.
Queensland may yet look to shake up their spine again for the third and final match of the series, with Ben Hunt a possible starter. Other options include Jake Turpin and Jake Granville.
Queensland's dummy half stocks have been significantly impacted by the injury to Grant, as well as one to Parramatta Eels rake Reed Mahoney, who was originally in the Game 1 extended squad.
