St George Illawarra have received a massive boost ahead of their important clash with North Queensland on Friday, with Tyson Frizell likely to overcome a neck problem to face the Cowboys.
Frizell suffered a wry neck in the lead up to State of Origin II in Perth on Sunday. But the Dragons forward overcame the complaint to play a starring role for NSW in their 38-6 victory over Queensland.
St George Illawarra's other Origin representatives - Ben Hunt, Tariq Sims and Paul Vaughan - all came through the match unscathed and are likely to be fit to play North Queensland.
The match is the first of three consecutive games for the Dragons in Wollongong.
Dragons head of athletic performance Nathan Pickworth said St George Illawarra's nine players who featured in the NRL's representative round were healthy, with Frizell putting his neck issue behind him.
"As a whole they've pulled up pretty well. The only one we sort of had to check up on was Tyson," Pickworth said.
"He obviously had that wry neck leading into the Origin II game on Sunday. He's pulled up really good. He's a little bit stiff but nothing we're overly concerned about.
"He's done some movement and stuff like that to get himself going [on Tuesday]. He's on track to play the Cowboys."
Meanwhile, Dragons captain Gareth Widdop will see his surgeon on Wednesday as he steps up the latest phase of rehabilitation following his shoulder reconstruction.
"He's coming along really well. He's seeing the surgeon tomorrow. Which is sort of like a final tick of clearance so we can really put our foot to the throttle and finish off the end of this rehab strong," Pickworth said.
"He's in a phase now where he's pretty much got to get it as strong as he can. He's working hard on his upper body strength and power. Then we'll phase him through contact and hopefully in the not too distant future we'll see him back out there."
St George Illawarra host North Queensland in Wollongong on Friday night needing to win to keep in touch with the top eight.
The Dragons slumped to 13th place on the NRL table after their 34-14 hammering at the hands of Manly a fortnight ago. St George Illawarra and the Cowboys are level on 12 points, two outside the top eight.
The pair are in a logjam of seven teams from Parramatta in eighth to Penrith in 14th separated by just two points.
The Dragons have won three of their last four clashes with North Queensland, including the last two meetings between the sides at WIN Stadium.
