Garry Lo is rated a 50-50 chance to face England in the World Cup quarter-final, according to Papua New Guinea assistant coach Marcus Bai.
The exciting winger, who has taken the World Cup by storm and will join Castleford from Sheffield for 2018, came off with an ankle injury in the Kumuls’ 64-0 win over the United States on Sunday and attended training at Xavier College on the outskirts of Melbourne on Tuesday in a protective boot.
“We’re looking at him but it might be Thursday or Friday before we’ll know,” said Bai. “I’d say he’s 50-50.”
Lo is set for a mouth-watering duel with England’s in-form winger Jermaine McGillvary but Bai insists head coach Michael Marum will take no risks with his star man and, if he fails to recover in time, there are players ready to step in.
“We’ve got two boys who are waiting in the wings,” said the former Hull, Leeds and Bradford winger.
“Michael will have the last say and, if he’s not right, he’s not going to be selected.
“Stargroth [Amean] can play full-back and wing and a bit of centre and Thompson Teteh can play centre and second row, also on the wing, and those boys are 100 per cent.”
Teenage stand-off Lachlan Lam, son of former Wigan and Papua New Guinea half-back Adrian Lam, has been left out despite scoring two tries on debut against the Hawks.
Lam, who also missed training on Tuesday to attend to family matters in Sydney, makes way for PNG Hunters captain Ase Boas, who is recalled alongside younger brother Watson after being rested on Sunday, but is tipped to have a bright future.
“Young Lachlan played very well last week,” said Bai. “He came in and put his marker down. He is knocking on the door.
“He’s got a very good attitude, a good brain and his dad taught him well. He is the future of the Kumuls.”
Papua New Guinea qualified for the last eight after winning all three group games, which were played in front of capacity 15,000 crowds in Port Moresby, and Bai, who is joined on the Kumuls backroom staff by former Salford winger Jon Wilshire, says there is belief that the team can pull off a shock against England.
“It’s always a possibility if we play well and play direct and defend well,” he said. “We can score points but defence will win the game.
“In our last two games we dropped so many balls and you can’t do that against a quality side who are very professional and coached well by Wayne Bennett.
“We have already achieved some of the things that a lot of people didn’t think we could achieve.
“We’re going to work really hard and maintain the boys so they have some confidence and belief.”
Papua New Guinea: 1 David Mead (c), 2 Justin Olam, 3 Kato Ottio, 4 Nene Macdonald, 5 Garry Lo, 6 Ase Boas, 7 Watson Boas; 8 Moses Meninga, 9 James Segeyaro, 10 Luke Page, 11 Rhyse Martin, 12 Willie Minoga, 13 Paul Aiton.
Interchange: 14 Kurt Baptiste, 15 Stargroth Amean, 16 Stanton Albert, 17 Rod Griffin