New South Wales Blues State of Origin coach Brad Fittler has reportedly pulled yet another shock ahead of his team being named for Game 1.
According to News Corp, Jake Trbojevic, who made it unscathed through Sunday's clash with the Canberra Raiders on his early return from injury, has elected to pull out of the opening game of the interstate series, to be played in Adelaide on May 31.
In his place, Canterbury Bulldogs' prop Tevita Pangai Junior is believed to have been called up.
It's believed Jake Trbojevic had soreness coming out of the game against Canberra.
Pangai Junior hasn't been mentioned in any selection discussions during recent weeks, and spent a significant chunk of time off the field during the opening weeks of the season.
The forward eventually returned in Round 7 against the Parramatta Eels, and has played at least 40 minutes in each of his six appearances starting at prop with a high of 57 minutes leading to 213 metres and a pair of tackle busts.
"Tevita is our main man in the middle. He has been working really hard on his game," coach Cameron Ciraldo said after the win over the Titans.
"He is putting a lot of pressure on himself, and he has probably at times overthought things. We have tried to simplify his game and get him back to doing what he does best, and I thought he showed signs of that today.
"We all know what Tevita can do and we just want him to get it done more consistently and he is doing that at training. That's going to transfer to game day and I'm glad everyone got to see some of that today."
It appears the performance has been enough to convince Fittler to call him into the squad.
Fittler is set to make a number of other big calls, including recalling Josh Addo-Carr, sticking with Jarome Luai in the halves, debuting Hudson Young and having Nicho Hynes on his bench instead of Damien Cook, with Apisai Koroisau to be the sole dummy half.
The Blues team is expected to be named on Monday morning.