Boyd Cordner has sought treatment from an inner Sydney energy healer - recommended by NSW legend Wayne Pearce - in a desperate bid to prove his fitness for the State of Origin decider.
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The Blues skipper revealed he turned to a one-off appointment with the globe-trotting Kevin Farrow, who claims on his website to have helped thousands of people who "could not be effectively served by Western medicine's 'traditional' treatments".
Cordner used the session to complement his around-the-clock care from Roosters medical staff, who have worked overtime to help their co-captain be fit for the Suncorp Stadium showdown.
The straight-laced 25-year-old resorting to alternative healing techniques shows the measures he is prepared to go to in a bid to lead NSW in next Wednesday's Origin decider, billed as the biggest interstate clash in recent memory.
Cordner, who had approval from his club to consult Farrow, has skipped the Roosters' last two games with a calf injury sustained in NSW's Origin II loss and will sit out the majority of the game three build-up before hopefully completing the Blues' main session at Kingscliff on Sunday.
Cordner made significant progress on the weekend running on an Alter G treadmill designed to reduce the weight bearing load on the body, but admitted he had dabbled into the radical idea of energy healing to help speed up his rehabilitation.
On Farrow, Cordner said: "He's just an energy healer and he doesn't really work on you, but he did some work on Wayne and it helped him. It's hard to explain. It sounds weird explaining it, but sometimes they touch points and other times they'll just put their hands above [the affected area].
"I don't normally do it, but if anything will help why not? I've only had one session with him. I've bought into it and try to get as much out of it as I can."
Farrow, who is based at Balmain, claims to have been able to accurately feel the energetic fields around the human body from 1973 at the age of just 19.
He professes to have studied the classics of Chinese medicine and the ancient tantric texts of India and Tibet.
"We work on energy fields in different parts of the body and most of our referrals are through word of mouth," Farrow said.
"We don't work on many elite athletes, but we were recommended to Boyd by Wayne Pearce, who was struggling with a back injury for two years and sought our help for it to heal, which it did."
Cordner and fellow back-rower Tyson Frizell (ribs and calf) are the main injury concerns for Laurie Daley, who is on track to lead the first unchanged NSW side in a series since 1996.
