Storm captain an Queensland Maroons star Harry Grant will be ready for Origin opener

Melbourne Storm will get skipper Harry Grant back earlier than expected in good news for the Queensland Maroons.

Melbourne Storm are hoping to have skipper Harry Grant back on the field by round 10, with the Maroons star likely to get at least one club game in before the State of Origin series kicks off.

There were fears Grant would miss the Origin opener on May 28 as a result of a hamstring injury that kept him out of last week’s shock loss to the Dolphins.

“Harry’s going to miss the next two games – this game against the Rabbitohs and the Magic weekend against the Raiders,” Storm general manager of football Frank Ponissi said on Wednesday.

“He’ll definitely miss those two games, but we’re hoping he’ll be back the following week against the Wests Tigers.

“He’ll be touch and go for that one. If he’s not available for that, he’ll definitely be available for the last game before Origin.”

Harry Grant of the Storm (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

The Storm are dealing with a mini injury crisis with Jack Howarth expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a dislocated shoulder, while Tui Kamikamica will miss two games with an ankle sprain.

Nick Meaney should return for Friday’s game against Souths, while Nelson Asofa-Solomona has also been named, although Ponissi said the preference was for him to play a game in reserve grade to work on his conditioning.

“We should get Nick Meaney back on Friday which is great because we’re really thin out wide, but the rest of our centres won’t be back for another couple of months so we’re going to be missing them for a while,” Ponissi told SEN, with Moses Leo also out long term.

“Every club gets injuries, but it’s just how you deal with them. We know at the beginning of the year that we’re going to have injuries and we’re going to have bad periods, it’s the ability to cover them.

“We coped really well last year when we had injuries, but we didn’t cope with it last week. The next month we’ll make a real effort to carry on without some key members of our team.”

Nelson Asofa-Solomona has been named to return. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Injuries won’t be used an excuse this week as they look to bounce back from an ugly loss to the Dolphins where they conceded 40 points in a row after blowing a 16-2 lead.

Ponissi said the review was a tough one but praised the players for how they’ve responded at training.

“It hasn’t been pleasant. It wasn’t just uncharacteristic, it’s not accepted at the club,” he said.

“It was a pretty strong and honest review, but in fairness to the players, they’ve reacted by training really well for the rest of the week.”