Penrith skipper Matt Moylan has been cleared to take on North Queensland, however Te Maire Martin has been robbed of a chance to prove a point against his old side.
Moylan appears likely to take on the Cowboys on Saturday night at Pepper Stadium after overcoming a hamstring injury which has plagued him for the past month and he's missed three matches.
While the Panthers will be bolstered by the return of their five-eighth, the Cowboys have lost theirs with a knee injury ruling Martin out of what would have been his first match against his former club.
"We just didn't want to put him at risk at this stage. You can't roll the dice with players like that," Cowboys coach Paul Green said.
Martin is set to be replaced by Ben Hampton or Kyle Laybutt with one to start and the other to begin on the bench.
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Martin left the foot of the mountains after falling out of favour with coach Anthony Griffin, but has found a home in Townsville and has been instrumental in the side staying in finals contention despite the loss of Johnathan Thurston.
Thurston's season-ending shoulder injury was expected to be the coup de grace for the Cowboys' season but they have won four of their past six.
They are coming off back-to-back losses but they have been against ladder leaders Melbourne and the Sydney Roosters.
"I'd like to think we're a pretty resilient group," Green said.
"We've faced some tough hurdles so far this year and I think we've kept fighting.
"That's one of the attributes of this group which I'm pretty proud of - they've shown a lot of character. I'm sure Saturday night will be no different."
Both sides go into the match perched precariously on the edge of the top eight.
The Cowboys are sixth on 28 points, while the Panthers have fought they way into eighth after five-straight victories.
STATS THAT MATTER:
* The Panthers have the second-worst completion rate in the competition (74.3 per cent), make the second-most errors (11.6 per game) and miss the second-most tackles (31.4 per game)
* North Queensland have the best completion rate in the NRL (79.8 per cent) and are being awarded the most penalties (7.9 per game)
