NSW star Jordan McLean in tears as Origin dream crushed, Freddy heartbroken

A NSW star has been ruled out of State of Origin Game 3 and the hardest thing will be telling his children he won’t be playing.

Jordan McLean was injured at training. Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images.

NSW star Jordan McLean has been ruled out of State of Origin Game 3.

The Cowboys forward says he immediately knew his dream of making his Origin debut at the age of 30 was over after injuring his hamstring at a training session on Thursday morning.

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McLean was seen in tears at training and he confirmed the worst when facing reporters.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m pretty disappointed,” he said.

“My career has been full of ups and downs and I’ve kind of been used to it but I thought there might be some light at the end of the tunnel getting this opportunity but it wasn’t to be,” McLean said.

“I was just doing normal things at training and I just don’t know what to say. I don’t feel too good at the moment.

Jordan McLean. Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images.

“I still haven’t talked to my family and that’s going to be the hardest thing telling my young fellas that I’m not going to be playing.

“When you get these opportunities… I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future at the moment. I’m pretty disappointed.

“I don’t feel too good at the moment.

“I still haven’t talked to the family yet and that is going to be the hardest thing – telling my young fellas that I’m not going to be playing.

“When you get these opportunities, you don’t know when they are going to happen again.”

NSW confirmed Knights star Jacob Saifiti has been called back to camp and is expected to start in the front row against Queensland on Wednesday night at Suncorp Stadium.

Saifiti was named on an extended squad but has left camp to prepare for Newcastle’s Friday night clash with South Sydney.

It is a headache for Blues coach Brad Fitler, who earlier this week announced his side and made the difficult choice to leave Raiders star Jack Wighton out of his team for the series decider.

But Fittler was thinking only of the man when he spoke on Thursday.

“I was that excited, more from the point of view that I thought his footy was so ready… Heartbreaking,” Fittler said on Thursday.

“Yeah (it came out of the blue) but we know he’s had injury problems so we didn’t train much yesterday, we were very careful with what we were doing with loading and stuff.

“But I think also they’re so used to what they do at their club and this is so different to what every other team does. Whether it was that, he just has a history with these.

“It’s just heartbreaking the fact he doesn’t get to play.

“Speaking to him, he feels like it’s not a huge injury where he’ll be out for a long time.

“I’m always very conscious of sending the players back fit and healthy but for this one I’m just gutted he’s not playing.”

It’s a big blow for Fittler. Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images

McLean has battled hamstring injuries in his career and said he knew before the scan that it wasn’t good.

On the bright side, Fittler confirmed McLean was on his radar for the future.

“I think given how he was going this year I don’t see him far off getting a chance,” Fittler said.

“I don’t care about age, his footy at the Cowboys has been so good.”