Queensland’s epic game one upset of NSW was the first time the independent doctor has been used in Origin after it was introduced for this year’s NRL competition.

Gibbs was asked by the independent doctor, watching the game through various monitors at the NRL’s inner city bunker headquarters, to enlist orange shirt trainer Travis Touma to conduct an on-field assessment on Yeo.

The independent doctor had ruled Yeo a category three, requiring a further check from the trainer.

“On ground level we don’t really have good vision to even see the incident,” Gibbs said.

“We asked to view it with the bunker doctor and the bunker doctor showed me the vision he selected. He said Isaah had a hit to the jaw and we looked at that. He asked if we could get our orange shirt to do a category three which is an on-field check. We got Trav to do that, and I reported back to the bunker and he said, ‘all good’.

“He played the game out without any ill effect. I didn’t see any of the vision post contact. The bunker doctor could see that.

“It’s a great system at the moment. The bunker doctor has all the good angles, all the good vision and they make the call, and we just follow their instructions. From my point of view it’s easy. It’s much better than it used to be.”

He played the game out without any ill effect. I didn’t see any of the vision post contact. The bunker doctor could see that

Dr Nathan Gibbs

Queensland coach Billy Slater bit his tongue when asked about the Yeo incident, instead asking the media what their thoughts were on Yeo staying on the field. Yeo’s teammate Tariq Sims even reached out in an apparent effort to stabilise Yeo as he retreated to the defensive line.

Blues adviser Greg Alexander admitted Yeo “was obviously affected and probably shouldn’t have stayed on for as long as he did”

“The trainer couldn’t get out to him immediately and I don’t know why it wasn’t called immediately from the independent doctor,” he told SEN. “It was called a category three which meant that once our trainer got out there, which was a minute or two later, all he needs to do was pass the HIA - and he did.

“The Isaah Yeo situation was a very confusing one.”

It’s the first major concussion drama in Origin since former NSW captain Boyd Cordner was cleared to return to the field in the opening game of the 2020 series in Adelaide.

The NRL said Cordner should not have returned to the field after an investigation, and issued the NSWRL a formal warning.

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It was the last match of Cordner’s decorated career as he retired the following year with due to ongoing concerns about his brain health.

“It was obviously a big one on [the contact with Josh] Papalii there, but I felt fine,” Yeo said in the sheds after the game.

“I remember everything, I’ve been knocked out and it definitely wasn’t that. I just lost a bit of balance.”

Yeo and other potentially concussed players are asked a series of questions including who they played last week, what half of the game is it, who scored the last try and how many tries did you score last week in on-field checks.

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