Cowboys play it safe with Morgo

RUGBY LEAGUE: Cowboys star Michael Morgan has been put in cotton wool and will miss tonight’s blockbuster in Brisbane, with coach Paul Green of the belief he could risk prolonging his stomach injury if he played.

Morgan was a no-show when the team left Townsville yesterday after he sat out last week’s season-opening win against Cronulla.

The Cowboys have a six-day turnaround to next Thursday’s grand final rematch against the Storm in Melbourne.

“He probably hasn’t improved enough, so if he did play tomorrow night he probably would have taken a fair while to get over the game,” Green said.

“That’s the nature of the injury, we don’t want to take that risk.

“I said at the start an injury like this can hang around all season, and we want to try and avoid that if we can.”

It means Te Maire Martin will partner Johnathan Thurston in the halves again after ably deputising for Morgan against the Sharks.

“He did a great job for us,”

Green said.

Green said he expects the Broncos pack to “come off the back fence” after they were subject to fierce criticism this week after a meek opening-round loss to St George Illawarra.

“A lot’s been said about their pack, one thing about the Broncos is they’re a proud club and I’m sure they’ll fire back after the criticism they’ve copped this week,” Green said.