Lockyer out of Raiders clash

Brisbane lynchpin Darren Lockyer will miss the Broncos’ crucial final round match with Canberra due to a troublesome rib injury.

After initially declaring himself fit to face the Raiders, Lockyer quickly made himself unavailable for the clash after a closed contact session yesterday.

Brisbane need to beat Canberra by 15 points and rely on St George overcoming South Sydney to make the final qualifying eight.

Lockyer says he is not ready to throw himself back into the rigours of the NRL just yet.

“I trained with the boys this afternoon and everything seemed to go okay,” said Lockyer.

“But when I did some private contact work I realised the injury is not ready for an NRL game yet.

Lockyer,  who suffered the injury in the round 22 match against North Queensland, says he has made the right choice.

He added: “I had to make the right decision and I know I have.

“I have confidence the team can get the job done anyway and if all goes well, we will get a shot in the finals next week.”

Brisbane team to face Canberra:

1 Josh Hoffman
2 Antonio Winterstein
3 Alex Glenn
4 Israel Folau
5 Jharal Yow Yeh
6 Corey Norman
7 Ben Hunt
8 Shane Tronc
9 Andrew McCullough
10 Ben Te’o
11 Matt Gillett
12 Sam Thaiday
13 Corey Parker (c)

Interchange

14 Nick Kenny
15 Josh McGuire
16 Mitchell Dodds
17 Scott Anderson