‘Quietly confident’: Stephen Crichton expected to play Origin opener as the Blues investigate how a photo of his injury was taken and leaked

The Blues will continue to investigate who took a photo of Stephen Crichton and leaked it online, but the more pressing matter is his fitness.

Blues coach Laurie Daley is “confident” that strike centre Stephen Crichton will overcome a corked thigh to take his place in Wednesday night’s State of Origin opener, with the NSW camp set to investigate how a photo of the injury was leaked on Monday.

Crichton hobbled from the field at Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane after media were asked to leave the training session as has been the case for the past couple of series.

But a picture of Crichton’s heavily iced left leg soon surfaced on social media, prompting the Blues to get in touch with Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton, telling him he should be on standby if his club teammate was ruled out.

Campbell Graham will start at right centre if Crichton is ruled out, but Daley is optimistic that the game’s best defensive centre will be good to go.

Word from NSW Origin camp this morning …

“Stephen Crichton has pulled up quite well this morning … Medical staff are optimistic about him playing, but no guarantees … We will continue to hold Matt Burton on standby” …

— Phil Gould (@PhilGould15) May 27, 2025

“We’ll see how he is tomorrow morning, but we’re quietly confident that he’ll be OK,” the NSW coach said, with Burton to come in as 18th man if required.

“Campbell Graham will come straight into the starting team. Campbell is aware that if anything happens overnight, that he’ll be straight in.

“He’s been here all camp. The fact that he’s a right centre doesn’t change anything for us.

“We’ll just see how Steve is tomorrow and then we’ll make a call. It’s only a cork, nothing other than that.

“(I want to see) mobility. That’s the key. That’ll be guided by the swelling.”

Blues skipper Isaah Yeo has played plenty of big games with Crichton and is backing him to overcome the uncomfortable knock.

“It’s never ideal, but it feels like this week just throws up challenges,” he said ahead of his first series in charge.

“He’s got a challenge that he’s got to overcome, but I’m really confident. There were no scans needed. It was just an innocuous bump, so he’ll be fine.”

A leaked image of Stephen Crichton’s injury has angered Blues officials.

The fact people know about the injury has angered the Blues, who will investigate in the coming days how someone was able to take the photo at a closed session.

“You prefer none of that to get out, but when we do our game one review, we’ll have a look at that,” Daley said.

“That’s not my focus at the moment. My focus is on being able to prepare the team, do some little things today just to top off, and we’ll be ready to go.

“I don’t know (if the Maroons were behind it), but you’d like it to be a private session. At the end of the day, it is what it is.

“I’m not concerned about that now, but I’ll worry about that after the camp.”

There is better news for Daley ahead of his second stint in charge, with Broncos behemoth Payne Haas cleared to start after a disrupted week where he had to deal with a quad strain as well as wild weather in NSW that forced the team to move their training from Leura to Penrith on Saturday.

Craig Bellamy has helped Laurie Daley ahead of the Origin opener. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The stress of it all has been alleviated by having Storm coach Craig Bellamy in camp, with Daley adamant that Melbourne’s main man hasn’t divulged any intel on how to contain Harry Grant, Cameron Munster and Xavier Coates.

“Craig has been fantastic, but Craig hasn’t had anything to do with the tactical part of the game,” he explained.

“Craig has been an influence on us coaches for us to run things by him and how to plan our sessions and the messaging of our meetings.

“It’s invaluable to us knowing that we’ve got a bloke sitting in our corner (like him) reviewing everything.

“I didn’t think it was fair (to ask him to reveal the Storm’s secrets). I didn’t get him on-board to come up with game plans – that’s what we’re here for.

“We’ll do strengths and weaknesses of the opposition, but Craig is all about us coaches and making sure we are prepared as best as we possibly can be to make sure the boys are ready.”

Originally published as ‘Quietly confident’: Stephen Crichton expected to play Origin opener as the Blues investigate how a photo of his injury was taken and leaked