New South Wales Blues star Latrell Mitchell out of State of Origin decider against Queensland Maroons

The Rabbitohs star, 29, has been sidelined since Round 11 with a back issue but trained over the weekend and was expected to take part in Monday’s session.

But a calf issue saw him sent for scans — and it has now been confirmed he has a small tear.

Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett told reporters: “He’s done his calf muscle.

“It’s coming from his lower back. It will be a couple of weeks. He was warming up this morning and he felt a bit of soreness there.

“No one is to blame. He’s definitely out of Origin.”

Prior to the calf problem that has ruled him out of the Origin decider on July 8, Mitchell had been expected to play for the Rabbitohs against Parramatta on Thursday.

Now the Blues will be forced to try and reclaim the shield without the South Sydney star.

Rabbitohs teammate Jye Gray spoke about Mitchell’s injury setback shortly before Bennett confirmed his Origin hopes had been dashed.

Gray said: “He brings such an energy and a presence to training, and when we’re out there on the field, you know when he’s next to you.

“You just want to see all your teammates get out on the field and not have these injury setbacks. But he will be back, so we’re hopeful. We don’t know how bad anything is at the moment, (but it’s) obviously devastating for him.

“I have no idea (what the injury is). By the time we got back in after training, he was gone, so I actually have no idea what it is.

“It was devastating that he had to go off, but obviously we have a next man up mentality, and it was at the start of training, so whoever filled in there at the end just has to come in, do a job, and fill the shoes that he left.”

South Sydney forward Lachlan Hubner said it was “happy days” as a Queenslander for Mitchell to potentially miss the decider, but Gray put state loyalties aside if it meant having their star centre back on deck.

“He’s my teammate so I want him to be playing,” the fullback said.

“NSW will probably want him back. I think Queensland still have the team to win, but as a teammate and as a person, you don’t want to see anyone injured ever so we want him back as soon as possible.

“We had a couple of byes (earlier in the season) and everyone got off, and I think he was still in here training.

“That just goes to show how badly he does want to get out on the field and represent our club. He’s putting in the work for sure. It’s just an unfortunate run of luck, and he will be back soon.”

Jack Wighton could be a shock inclusion this week after training strongly with a big brace to protect the forearm he broke earlier this season.

“He brings a lot of experience with over 200 NRL games and representative football,” Rabbitohs prop Junior Tatola said.

“He brings a lot of energy, so if he does play then it’d be great to have him back. If he doesn’t we’ve got boys to back up.”

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