Prop out of clash
A BOUT of chickenpox has forced Cowboys prop Daniel Strickland out of a North Queensland team battling to regain dented pride against the Canberra Raiders tonight.
The 23-year-old, who avoided the highly contagious illness throughout his childhood, was yesterday ruled out and ordered to rest in Townsville over the weekend with prop Dean Limpus and halfback Aaron Payne completing the 18-man squad which arrived in Canberra yesterday afternoon.
A disappointed Strickland said he had wanted to play to make amends with his teammates following a poor performance against Newcastle last weekend.
"I never got a full dose of it (chickenpox) as a child," Strickland said.
"I had been feeling a bit fluey over a couple of days and I didn't get much sleep on Thursday night."
The loss of Strickland comes as another blow for an injury-plagued side after the loss of Matt Sing (dislocated finger) and Leigh McWilliams (broken arm) for the season during last weekend's 60-24 loss to Newcastle.
Captain Paul Bowman (groin) and Glenn Morrison (foot) only took part in light training during the week while Ty Williams (knee), Chris Sheppard (ankle), Paul Rauhihi (knee) and Chris Muckert (blurred vision) were all passed fit to play.
Without Strickland, a window of opportunity has opened for Limpus and Payne, who are both yet to make an appearance in first grade this season.
Cowboys coach Graham Murray said he was still tossing up whether to use Limpus or Jacob Lillyman off the bench with Payne a certainty to enter the game at some stage, either at halfback or hooker.
"I'm still toying with who comes in, either Limpus or Lillyman, but I'm probably leaning towards Lillyman because he played last week and he knows what's required at the moment," Murray said.
"I want to see Payney play (and) without Leigh McWilliams there (at hooker) we need a bit of spark out of dummy half.
"Paul Dezolt is a great defender and he'll hold it all together well and if he's still doing the job by halftime then I won't make any changes, but Aaron might come on at halfback and maybe move Sheppard to five-eighth."
Shane Muspratt, one of the Cowboys' best in a disappointing display last weekend, will play his 50th first grade game against the Raiders.
The Cowboys are not on their own in the injury department though, with the Raiders also fielding an understrength team for tonight's clash.
Raiders' fullback Clinton Shifcofske was yesterday ruled out with an ankle injury, adding to the loss of captain Simon Woolford (suspension) and Brad Drew (hamstring).
Halfback Mark McLinden is also unlikely to play with Michael Monaghan expected to play at first receiver. Centre Adam Mogg will switch to fullback with Alan Tongue promoted from the bench to hooker.
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