{"id":16876,"date":"2021-01-02T06:34:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T07:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=16876"},"modified":"2021-01-02T08:56:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T08:56:38","slug":"cowboys-give-return-date-for-injured-star-morgan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=16876","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys give return date for injured star Morgan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rebuilding North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> have received an enormous boost on the road to their 2021 NRL campaign, with star playmaker Michael Morgan expected to be fit for round one.<\/p>\n

Morgan underwent shoulder surgery after the 2020 season was postponed due to COVID-19 in March, and although he was expected to feature in the majority of North Queensland's remaining matches when the competition returned on May 28, he managed only another four games.<\/p>\n

The former Queensland Maroons utility was let down by a surgery that went horribly wrong, with his shoulder becoming infected and requiring another operation.<\/p>\n

But Morgan, who played just six games last season as the Cowboys crashed to a third-consecutive finals exile, is now in line to be ready for North Queensland's season-opening clash with the Penrith Panthers on March 13.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Everything is suggesting he will be all right," Cowboys coach Todd Payten said.<\/p>\n

"He has done all of our contact and quite a bit of tackling.<\/p>\n

"He has had some sore moments but he is going to be sore. He has to deal with that.<\/p>\n

"We have modified his training in some parts heading into Christmas, but for the most part he's done everything.<\/p>\n

"Unless there is a hiccup, we are expecting him to play round one."<\/p>\n

It was a scooting Morgan run that set up winger Kyle Feldt for the famous try that drew the Cowboys level with the Brisbane Broncos after the full-time siren of the 2015 grand final.<\/p>\n

And the former Kangaroos representative was again in sublime touch on the Cowboys' trail to the 2017 decider against the Melbourne Storm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cowboys coach Todd Payten, who took control from 2015 premiership mentor Paul Green after the completion of the 2020 season<\/a>, says the club's medical team is taking a cautious approach with Morgan.<\/p>\n

"I'm only going off what the medical department told me all along, and they were confident he could get it right and be able to play (in round one)," Payten said.<\/p>\n

"He has had a serious infection and needed to rehab that and make sure we didn't stretch him too far in his contact.<\/p>\n

"For a lot of it we left it open to Michael and where he felt comfortable and could keep going. In other areas we've pulled him right back.<\/p>\n

"He is training well and has taken part in all of our indoor contact sessions. He is in a good spot at the moment."<\/p>\n

Morgan will pull on the Cowboys' number-seven jersey in 2021 and partner Scott Drinkwater or Jake Clifford in the halves.<\/p>\n

Drinkwater is his most likely halves partner because of his outstanding 2020 season and the fact Clifford will depart for the Newcastle Knights after the end of the 2021 campaign.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rebuilding North Queensland Cowboys have received an enormous boost on the road to their 2021 NRL campaign, with star playmaker Michael Morgan expected to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16878,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16876\/revisions\/16878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}