Inglis out of quarantine and set to join Hodges in Origin opener

It may not have been as dramatic as Trevor Gillmeister’s 1995 heroics but Greg Inglis emerged from his hospital bed to join his Queensland teammates yesterday.

Maroons backrower Sam Thaiday revealed Inglis had spent three nights in hospital with tonsillitis before receiving the nod for Wednesday night’s State of Origin league opener.

Inglis was quarantined last week at Queensland’s Gold Coast camp but joined his teammates yesterday, albeit to watch training from the sidelines.

Veteran centre Justin Hodges also received the thumbs up for Origin I after spending last week nursing a foot wound suffered in a bike crash at the camp.

Inglis may not quite have rivalled the comeback of Gillmeister who famously left hospital to lead the Maroons to a 3-0 1995 series win before checking himself back in.

Still, Inglis received a round of applause from teammates when he joined them at their last training session before they fly out to Sydney.

It emerged Inglis had to undergo blood tests on Friday.

“The doc has been looking after GI very closely,” Thaiday said.

“Tonsillitis they said — I thought that was only for little kids but he’s been in hospital for three days so it must have been bad.’’

Queensland coach Mal Meninga tried to play down Inglis’ hospital stay after confirming the veteran centre would play Origin I.

“It’s just precautionary really,” he said. “The doc’s normally conservative with these sorts of illnesses and there’s been an epidemic of tonsillitis and viral flu at the moment so just being precautionary to make sure we look after one of our very valuable players.

“He’s back with the team, he’ll be travelling with the team and he’ll train Tuesday and play Wednesday. He’s still getting over the aftermath of tonsillitis but he’ll be fine for Wednesday.”