Dearden will get his first taste of Origin football at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday after Cameron Munster tested positive to COVID-19.

Winger Murray Taulagi suffered a similar fate with Corey Oates taking his spot on the wing.

Dearden's introduction, however, is not as straightforward.

Slater is keeping his cards close to his chest over whether to move starting hooker Ben Hunt to five-eighth and deploy Dearden off the interchange.

His other option is to simply throw the debutant Dearden straight into the halves alongside skipper Daly Cherry-Evans.

"I'm not too sure (where I'll be playing)," Dearden, 21, said on Sunday.

"Billy just said I'll be in the 17. He hasn't really worked out how it's going to work yet."

It helps the Maroons that Dearden spent some time as a bench utility at club level with Brisbane before joining the Cowboys last year.

"I think I'd be comfortable to jump in wherever the team would need me," he said.

"That's what I've been doing at camp as well. I've just been helping out wherever the team needs me.

"I think that'd be my role if I was to come off the bench."

Dearden has been a squad player for the first two games of this year's series but when Taulagi and Munster went down with COVID-19, Slater was forced to turn to him.

"On Friday night Billy knocked on my door pretty late at night and he just told me that Munster's COVID-19 test had come up positive and that I would get my debut for Queensland," he said.

"I had no words, it was a really surreal moment for myself.

"Munster called me and congratulated me and said the players back me and they're really excited for me to get my debut."

The call-up to the Maroons starting side caps an impressive 12 months for the young playmaker.

Dearden left Brisbane for Townsville last year after falling out of favour at the Broncos but he has thrived in 2022 with a revived Cowboys side.

"If you go back about 12 months ago, or even even six months ago, I probably wouldn't picture myself even coming along to these camps," he added.

"To be able to now get my debut, it's unreal.

"I think it's a really good turnaround, I'm pretty happy and really proud of myself."

Australian Associated Press