Johnathan Thurston's Origin swansong and North Queensland's mid-season form could rest on the results of scans on the star playmaker's shoulder.
Just 25 days out from the State of Origin opener in Brisbane, Thurston was sent for scans on Saturday after he injured his shoulder in the 30-12 Kangaroos Test win over New Zealand.
However, the results of those tests won't be known until Monday.
Thurston has not played for the Cowboys since early April when he injured his hamstring in a loss to the Wests Tigers.
The 34-year-old raced the clock to be fit for Friday night's Test.
Some reports on Saturday suggested Thurston had been diagnosed with a grade-two tear, which would likely rule him out for between four to six weeks.
But Cowboys football manager Peter Parr said the club was still unaware of the extent of the injury.
"I think any talk of length of time on the sideline would be premature," Parr told AAP.
Any loss of Thurston would be a significant blow to the Maroons, given they are already without forward leader Matt Scott and star centre Greg Inglis.
Thurston, who plans to retire from representative football at the end of the year, has not missed an Origin match since his debut in 2005.
It would also hurt the Cowboys' attempts to arrest their minor form slump, after they dropped out of the eight last weekend for the first time since April 2015.
It marked the end of a 54-week run of finishing each round in a finals-playing position.
The Cowboys have a difficult two-week road trip coming up, with a short turnaround in to Canterbury on Thursday in Sydney before facing the defending premiers in Cronulla.
Paul Green's side have won just four of their past 16 games without Thurston and have only beaten Newcastle in their three games without him this year.
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