Brisbane forward Joe Ofahengaue will miss Sunday's NRL derby against Gold Coast due to the nasty gash to his knee sustained on his State of Origin debut.
Ofahengaue left the field in the second half of Queensland's 18-14 win over NSW at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday after cutting his right knee on the bottom of a NSW player's boot.
The wound near his kneecap required a surgical clean in hospital and the Broncos say the 23-year-old's return will be determined by how the injury heals.
"He is on intravenous antibiotics aimed at minimising as much as we can any possible infection," Broncos head of performance Paul Devlin said.
"He won't be available this week but we really won't know until that wound heals up and we can check the function around the area.
"He could be back next week in the best-case scenario, so we are positive about it, or it could be a number of weeks after that."
Ofahengaue impressed on his Maroons debut, running 93 metres in just 32 minutes of action from the bench.
The uncertain nature of Ofahengaue's recovery however puts him in doubt for the second game of the Origin series, to be played in Perth on June 23.
Devlin said the prop's main concern will be preventing infection in the wound.
"It is a really strange injury - it is not a common rugby league injury to get a deep laceration on a patella," Devlin said.
"Everything seems to be working fine and there doesn't seem to be any underlying problems that would keep him out for a long time."
