Johnathan Thurston thought he was entering Wednesday's State of Origin II without the risk of re-injuring his problematic right shoulder.
However, just a day later, he was told he faced immediate surgery or otherwise the possibility of not picking him up his children for the rest of his life, after an injury suffered in game two.
Thurston will likely undergo the knife on his injured right shoulder in the next week, with scans confirming he has torn his supraspinatus - a muscle in the rotator cuff he had previously had surgery on in 2007.
Wednesday's match-winning Origin performance was just his second game back from a shoulder injury, suffered in May's Anzac Test against New Zealand.
But Thurston backed the Cowboys' claims that he thought he was fully clear of the injury before making his NRL return a week earlier in Darwin.
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"I thought it was pretty solid," he told Triple M on Saturday.
"I obviously played the game against Parra up in the Northern Territory and, from all the testing, I had to do strength-wise, I had passed with flying colours.
"So in my mind, my shoulder was 100 per cent right to go. It's just one of those things that is unlucky. I just copped a whack on it and it's torn."
Thurston admitted he was struggling to come to grips with the news his Maroons and Kangaroos careers were over, after he announced he would quit representative football earlier this season to focus on the Cowboys in 2018.
"It's just a rollercoaster of emotions at the moment," he said.
"One minute I'm feeling good and, the next minute, I start thinking about the game and Origin and missing the rest of the season.
"I want to start feeling sick and want to cry."
However, when offered the choice of sitting out the rest of the season or being unable to carry his three children in the future, Thurston said there was little consideration needed.
"While I would love to be there for game three, I would much prefer to pick my kids up 1000 times," he said.
"So the decision was pretty easy in the end. As much as I'm shattered, life after football is not far away."
The Maroons' No.6 also suggested any one of Michael Morgan, Cameron Munster, Corey Norman or Daly Cherry-Evans could fill his spot in the July 12 Origin decider.
