Queensland medical staff were keeping a close watch on forward Steve Price after he was knocked out in a fiery end to last night's third State of Origin game at Suncorp Stadium.
The Maroons were seething over the incident which led to Blues forward Trent Waterhouse claiming a slice of Origin history as the first NSW player to be sent off in 30 years.
Price, who is captain of the New Zealand Warriors, was trading blows with NSW prop Brett White when Waterhouse came charging in.
White appeared to land the punch that knocked out Price just before Waterhouse grabbed the veteran Queenslander.
Price was taken from the field on the back of medicab with his neck in a brace and blood flowing from his nose and mouth.
"Steve copped a good concussion, he was knocked out but he's on the road to recovery," said Queensland team doctor Roy Saunders.
"We'll be keeping a very close eye on him for the next 24 hours to make sure nothing deteriorates.
"If we need to do anything further, we'll do it through the night." Dr Saunders said Price had not reported feeling any pins and needles in his arms or legs.
"We didn't know what happened and the protocol is to look after the neck and that's what we did and we made sure we covered all the angles." He couldn't say how long Price could be sidelined for but he would have to be in doubt for Sunday's NRL clash with the Roosters, "It depends how he recovers. Everybody's brain recovers differently," he said.
Queensland weren't innocent of some questionable plays with halfback Johnathan Thurston in trouble for using his foot to try and stop a try by winger David Williams.
The Blues were concerned Williams may have suffered a fractured cheekbone as a result of Thurston's kick at the ball which hit him in the head.
"On my part, I led with my foot and I got charged so I'll just cop that on the chin," Thurston said.
"I thought I got the ball but when he got up he had a bit of a blood lip.
"I patted him on the chest and said sorry and he said he was all right."
Thurston said the players were angry and fired up about seeing Price get treated so badly.
"Pricey was cheap-shotted and the boys responded to that," he said.
"Pricey couldn't finish the game, everyone saw what happened to him." The Queensland camp were filthy that a NSW player roughed up Price after he'd gone down injured and that other Blues players were high-fiving and laughing as he was on the ground.
Justin Hodges called for an up-and-under bomb from his captain after the incident and the aggressive response resulted in Queensland forward Sam Thaiday and two-try hero Ben Creagh being sin binned for 10 minutes as the game threatened to blow up.
"The boys were pretty fired up about what happened to Pricey and they just wanted to respond," said Thurston.
"We're all pretty close mates and that's what we did."
