"I didn't pull up as well as I would have liked after our training run on Sunday, and because I'm not 100 per cent, it's in my best interests as well as the team's to withdraw from Wednesday's game," Slater said in a statement released by the Maroons.

Added Queensland coach Kevin Walters: "We knew we had some concerns with Billy, but he’s a champion player and we needed to give him every chance to play.

"We’ve had plans in place to cover Billy if he didn’t come up right, and we’ve actioned that today with Anthony and Kalyn coming in."

Only a few hours before Slater's participation in game one was thrown into doubt, Walters appeared to give the Melbourne ace the nod to play after missing the Storm's final match before Origin camp.

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"We’ve seen enough from Billy from his training [on Sunday] to indicate he’s going to be fine," Walters said at the traditional captains and coaches media conference on Monday morning.

"We were a little bit worried earlier in the week given it was a hamstring, [but] after what we saw yesterday from him we’re very confident he’s going to be fine.

"We expect everyone to come through that fine. We’ve got one session to get through obviously with our captain’s run, but we expect to have a fully fit team on Wednesday night."