Cronulla captain Paul Gallen has not travelled to Townsville this morning for the Sharks clash with North Queensland.
Gallen, 33, was named as 18th man on Tuesday but the rib-cartilage injury he suffered in State of Origin II last week has seen him ruled out of the match against the Cowboys.
Gallen had returned to the Sharks a week earlier after an eight-week lay-off because of a hip injury.
Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan said the Cowboys game had come too soon for Gallen.
“Gal trained well on Wednesday night and did nearly everything bar the contact and just probably fell a little short," he said.
“Maybe another day or two and he may have gotten there but we had to make a decision on that and we made that yesterday.”
The Sharks skipper has played seven of Cronulla’s 13 games so far this season.
Gallen played nine times for Cronulla last season and managed 16 games each in 2012 and 2013.
North Queensland will be without Jonathan Thurston who has been rested for the clash.
SHARKS: Michael Gordon, Sosaia Feki, Gerard Beale, Ricky Leutele, Valentine Holmes, Jack Bird, Jeff Robson, Andrew Fifita, Michael Ennis, Matt Prior, Luke Lewis, Wade Graham (c), Chris Heighington.
INTERCHANGE: Jayson Bukuya, Ben Barba, David Fifita and Sam Tagataese.
