Cleary is likely to miss the entire State of Origin series after injuring his hamstring in last week’s win over the Bulldogs.

Joining him on the sidelines is Mitchell Moses, who is racing the clock to return from a foot injury suffered in round three

Jarome Laui will step into the No.7 jumper for Sunday’s clash with the Warriors as the Panthers and Blues begin an eight-week stint without Nathan Cleary.

With injuries hitting a number of NSW’s top playmakers, Yeo views the next two weeks as an opportunity for Luai to prove he belongs in the Origin arena.

While disappointed to see Cleary go down, Yeo has been impressed with the way Luai has stepped up to take control of the team and expects that will flow through to the representative setup.

We can feel it around training at the minute,” Yeo said. “The way he’s communicating and talking, he’s being a lot more proactive.

“He’s going to touch the ball a bit more. It’s not new, he’s done it really well before, particularly for his country Samoa, so he’ll do a really wonderful job [as halfback].

“He’ll play different to what Nath does, they’re different players, so he’ll put his own mark and spin on it but still do a great job.”