Origin stars Tyson Frizell and Josh Dugan are expected to be named in NSW coach Laurie Daley’s squad for Origin III on Monday morning, but they’ll enter camp under an injury cloud having come from the field in the Dragons loss to Gold Coast on Friday night.

Frizell, who required pain-killing injections to a rib injury to get on the paddock for the Blues in game two, suffered another cartilage injury in his back while Dugan was left nursing a badly corked knee.

The pair were instrumental in overturning a 28-10 halftime deficit against Newcastle in round 16, but McGregor said that the bumps and bruises caught up with them against the Titans

"We rolled the dice with a couple of them going in to be honest. We’re pretty busted at the moment,” McGregor said.

"Friz took an injury in and copped another one during the game. It's a different injury [to Frizell], it’s in his back. 

“That's why he didn't come back on. He was able to come back on but he was limping when he was out there for most of the first half anyway so I didn't want to put him back out there. 

“You’ve got to look after the player. He had an ankle and a rib going in and then he copped anther [injury] so you’ve got to look at the player’s welfare.

"Duges had a cork and got another knock on that just on top of his knee."

The upcoming bye will spare the Dragons the task of playing without their two biggest names this week, though both will need to be carefully managed if they are to back up from game three against the Raiders in Canberra two days later.

Should Frizell be ruled out of the decider he’ll almost certainly miss the clash with the Raiders. It won’t ease the burden on the Dragons, with Jack de Belin looming as the likely replacement for the Blues should Frizell have to sit out game three.

Paul Vaughan is also 50-50 at best to take on his former club in a match shaping as a crucial one as the Dragons look to recapture momentum towards the finals over their final eight games.

McGregor admitted his side is struggling at the moment, but believes they can rebuild their finals charge on the other side of the week off.

"We haven't had the same team on the park since round eight. That's the truth of it," McGregor said.

"That's not an excuse but that's the truth. A few blokes are tired and busted and playing with needles. I don't know how healthy we'll come out of the bye either. 

“We've still got a few blokes that, if they play Origin, we play two days after it. We play against Canberra on the Friday night so we'll have to see how they pull up. 

“It’s pretty hard backing up. We’ve asked them to do it a couple of times and we played without them once against Parra.

“Paul Vaughan is still out, Jack de Belin hasn’t done much work, he had a strained calf from Origin camp as well. 

“Every side’s going to go through a little bit and, at the moment, we’re going through ours. There's no doubt we're still in a good position to make finals footy. 

“The boys will get away for five days to freshen up mentally and physically and we’ll regroup and go again.”