Nathan Cleary ruled out of Pacific Championships with a knee injury

One of the NRL stars who missed Kangaroos selection has been called up after an injury robbed the Australians of a star playmaker.

Nathan Cleary suffered a knee injury in the NRL grand final. NRL photos

Australia has been dealt a blow ahead of the Pacific Championship with star Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary ruled out with a knee injury and Cronulla’s Nicho Hynes called in to the squad.

Doubts surfaced about the availability of the Clive Churchill medallist in the hours after he was picked by Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga on Tuesday following an injury suffered in Sunday’s epic NRL grand final win.

Cleary played more than half the game with the issue after being hurt in a tackle in Broncos hulk Payne Haas.

He was sent for scans which confirmed the injury and Meninga could now look to Manly star Daly Cherry-Evans, who is also in the squad, as his replacement halfback.

Nathan Cleary is in doubt for the Kangaroos games after suffering a knee injury in the #NRLGF (via @MCarayannis). Happened in the 10th minute - scans to come to determine nature/severity but limited video brings concern for MCL sprain w hip drop tackle causing knee to collapse in pic.twitter.com/siHEixpv47

— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) October 3, 2023

But 2022 Dally M medallist Hynes was included as a replacement for Cleary given his versatility to play in the halves, holding out this year’s Dally M winner Kalyn Ponga.

Meninga is keen to have “specialists” in his side given the short time frame to prepare his team for the opening game against Samoa on October 14.

Meninga had lauded Cleary’s stunning grand final performance declaring he’d gone to “another level” over his rivals as he picked him ahead of Manly star Daly Cherry-Evans as his starting number seven.

It was an effort made more magical given he played under duress.

“Daly has had an unbelievable year but Nathan is at another level at the moment and he showed that on Sunday,” Meninga said.