NRL: Tate injury rules out Cowboys return

Brent Tate of the Cowboys walks away injured. Photo / Getty Images

North Queensland were dealt a blow on Friday, with coach Neil Henry confirming star centre Brent Tate had not recovered from a rib injury before the start of the NRL season.

The news is slightly better for key Cowboys' recruit Robert Lui (knee), who remains an outside chance of taking his place on the Cowboys bench to face Gold Coast in their season-opener on Saturday night despite not being named in the team on Tuesday.

Tate, who suffered the rib cartilage injury in a trial loss to Gold Coast a fortnight ago, has been unable to take part in contact training sessions, with Henry all but ruling him out of the clash at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

Tate, who was named alongside Kane Linnett in the centres by Henry, will be given up until an hour before the game to prove his fitness - and whether he'd be ready to face the challenge of reining in powerful Titan Jamal Idris.

"It's one of those things that if you can cope with (it's ok but) it's not a position on the body you'd want to try to put a needle into, around the lungs as well," Henry told reporters on Friday.

"It's one of those things you've just got to have a tolerance to pain and, at the moment, he would be in a fair bit of discomfort if he had to get tackled on it.

"Whether that changes before the game and he wants to play, I'll give him to the last moment."

Winger Antonio Winterstein would slot into the centres should Tate be ruled out, with Henry to decide between Kalifa Faifai Loa and Moses Pangai as the replacement winger.

Henry admitted Tate's loss would be a huge blow for the side, but backed Winterstein to handle NSW representative Idris.

"It is a bit of a blow. His experience will be needed out there," he said.

"(But) there's no point pushing him out there if he's underdone.

"... (Winterstein) did a good job in the trial.

"Tatey went off inside the first two minutes of the game, so I thought Antonio was pretty good on that edge when he went there and marked (Idris) fairly well."

Lui has trained in bursts with the team all week, sparking rumours he could replace youngster Ray Thompson at halfback to partner five-eighth Johnathan Thurston.

And Henry said if he did manage to make it through the team's final training run unscathed, Lui would come into contention for a spot - be it in the starting lineup or on the bench.

"I think if he comes through and he's really confident about it, I'd certainly have to consider him," Henry said.