Damien Cook reveals how close he came to missing State of Origin II

Suffering a boil on his left leg, the Helensburgh product was on restricted training duties as the infection steadily worsened.

Eventually Cook was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital on Monday night, where doctors feared he would miss the second State of Origin clash.

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St George Illawarra skipper Cameron McInnes was placed on standby, the hooker a chance to make his NSW debut in unique circumstances.

"The worst case was if it kept spreading," Cook said. "Then [the doctor] was going to have to open it up and clean out the infection.

"I don't think he really wanted me to play game two. He was talking about game three."

Cook, however, was having none of it, the hooker determined to play in the sudden-death match.

Thankfully for him, his body responded to antibiotics, the infection improving on Tuesday morning.

With a captain's run to attend, Cook left hospital at lunchtime and drove straight to ANZ Stadium to train with his teammates.

"I was never ruling myself out, I told Freddy that. I just had a plan, one of the trainers wasn't letting me get ruled out either. He just told me what needed to be done and we got it done."

Such was Cook's performance in the Blues 34-10 victory over Queensland, it was hard to tell he had endured such a disrupted preparation.

Even coach Brad Fittler appeared to take joy from the fact his squad had kept the injury under wraps until after the game.

For Cook, his performance was an important learning curve for how to ensure a subpar week does not affect your performance.

"It was very new to me. Normally I'm quite routined and like to do certain things during the week, it was a good learning experience for me.

"It doesn't matter what happens during the week, you've just got to make sure you're right on game day, once you cross that line."