He carried on like his season was over but North Queensland coach Paul Green suggested Cowboys forward Josh McGuire may not even miss a single NRL game after suffering a calf injury on Friday night.
McGuire left the contest in the 29th minute with a calf strain and exploded with an expletive-ladened rant before heading up the tunnel.
It is understood McGuire feared the injury would rule him out of Queensland’s Origin opener against NSW on June 5.
But Green played down the severity of the 29-year-old’s injury post-match, suggesting the former Bronco could even be a chance to play in the Cowboy’s Round 9 clash against South Sydney in nine days time.
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"I hope so but until we know exactly the extent of it we can't really speculate too much," Green said when asked if McGuire could potentially play against the Rabbitohs.
"It'd be nice for him to be there, but we'll see what happens."
"… We'll assess it but hopefully it's not too bad.
"It's probably just a low-grade calf strain so as I said we'll assess that over the next couple of days and get a better reading on it."
The standard recovery guide for a grade one calf strain is one-to-three weeks.
The Cowboys coach added of McGuire’s reaction to the injury as he left the field: “He’s filthy any time he comes off the field, whether he’s injured or not, so being injured probably made it a bit worse.”
Green’s upbeat response to the injury is welcome good news for Maroons coach Kevin Walters after a spate of injuries in recent weeks.
Half-back Daly Cherry-Evans is certain to miss at least Game 1 with an ankle injury, while Sydney Roosters hooker Jake Friend is out of the mix to wear the No.9 jumper with a ruptured biceps suffered on Anzac Day.
Skipper Greg Inglis also retired last month, leading to strong speculation Melbourne Storm rake Cameron Smith could come out of representative retirement.
