McLean may be out for season

JORDAN McLean’s debut Cowboys season is in tatters, with the North Queensland prop to miss the entire State of Origin series and possibly the rest of the year.

McLean will undergo surgery on a foot injury today ( Monday) in Brisbane after limping from 1300SMILES Stadium during last Thursday’s shock 33- 14 loss to Penrith.

The NSW Origin hopeful was North Queensland’s big off- season signing, joining the Cowboys from Melbourne to form an all- star engine room with Test stars Matt Scott and Jason Taumalolo.

However the 26- year- old is facing at least three months on the sidelines, and likely longer, ruling him out of Origin contention for the Blues in 2018.

McLean is believed to have suffered a Lisfranc fracture, one of the most serious foot injuries which can be notoriously tough to recover from.

Cowboys football operations boss Peter Parr said McLean was dealing with the setback well.

“He will have surgery ( today) in Brisbane,” he said.

“We expect the recovery will be a minimum of three months. We will see how the surgery goes.

“I’ve spoken to him and he is disappointed but has accepted it’s life. He will get the surgery done, start the recovery and we will look after him.

“We can’t change it.

We’ve got to deal with what’s in front of us.”

Former Cowboys forward Patrick Kaufusi missed more than four months last season after suffering the same injury.

But should the injury be weeks, McLean would return Round 15.

In another blow for the Cowboys, hooker Josh Chudleigh may have injured his anterior cruciate ligament for a third time after he failed to finish Mackay Cutters’ 22- 16 loss to Northern Pride in Cairns on Saturday night.

The 23- year- old, who had only returned to football two weeks ago, was taken from the field late in the match and is yet to undergo scans due to the Easter holiday period.

A fortnight ago, Chudleigh told media of his delight at being cleared to play after a 14- month rehabilitation period.

The 2016 Queensland Cup player of the year ruptured his ACL for the second time at pre- season training in December that year, but his recovery was delayed.

Cowboys fullback Lachlan Coote returned from a niggling hamstring injury for the Cutters, and has his fingers crossed Chudleigh’s injury isn’t as bad as feared.

“Like ‘ Pup’ ( Sheppard) said, he’s a great fella, done a lot of hard work to get to where he is now after back- to- back ACLs,” Coote said.

“Hopefully this one is not completely torn and best of luck to him.” NRL ladder page 29. 12 in