Bellamy: Munster's Origin forecast bleak but Grant 'ready to go'

Cameron Munster's Origin hopes are looking increasingly bleak with the Maroons star laid low and unable to run for the past three weeks with coach Paul Green just five days out from naming his first Queensland team.

Storm counterpart Craig Bellamy did deliver some welcome injury news for the Queenslanders on Wednesday, reporting Harry Grant is "pretty much ready to go again" in his recovery from a "bad hamstring tear".

Neither Grant or Munster will play for the Storm in Thursday's clash with Brisbane, after which Bellamy's side will return to the Sunshine Coast rather than Melbourne due to Victoria's latest COVID-19 outbreak.

As it stands the June 9 Origin series opener will go ahead at the MCG unless Melbourne goes into lockdown.

Munster is expected to be named alongside Grant by Queensland on Monday, with the Maroons five-eighth to be given every chance to prove his fitness in camp.

Bellamy's update on the Rockhampton product was hardly encouraging though, with Munster still sidelined by a foot sprain picked up in a 50-0 round-nine thrashing of South Sydney.

"It's coming along pretty slowly," Bellamy said of Munster's recovery.

"He still hasn't done any running with us. He's not back in the running rehab group yet. Sometimes those things take a little bit of time ... then at a certain point it comes good quickly."

Grant meanwhile completed a full training session on Thursday and is now firming for Origin I inclusion, though would still be going into the series with only five games to his name this season, the last being that Rabbitohs rout at the start of May.

Meanwhile, the Storm have decided to extend their stay on the Sunshine Coast on the advice of the NRL's biosecurity experts after six new coronavirus cases were reported by the Victorian government, taking the recent cluster numbers to 15 in Melbourne and 23 in the state.

The Storm had been in the final week of a mid-season camp at Twin Waters - their base for last year's remarkable premiership triumph - and will now return there instead of Melbourne after taking on Brisbane.

"Some of the guys are a little bit rattled," Bellamy said.

"Their families were going to come up with three days off after [the Broncos] game.

"That won't be happening now and obviously the guys can't go back there either. It's probably going to add a little bit of stress around the camp to be quite honest but hopefully things can be sorted."

Victoria's acting Premier James Merlino confirmed the MCG had been added to the state's list of exposure sites on Wednesday morning, with the iconic venue undergoing a deep clean after a fan attending Sunday's Collingwood-Port Adelaide clash tested positive for COVID-19.

Melbourne's offices are based in the same sporting precinct and the Storm are due to host the Titans next Saturday night at nearby AAMI Park before Origin I kicks off at the MCG four days later.

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo indicated on Tuesday that a full lockdown of Melbourne would be required for the June 9 Ampol State of Origin series opener to be shifted.

AFL games at the MCG this weekend are at this stage still set to be played as scheduled, with crowd capacity reduced to 85 per cent.

The acting Premier said on Wednesday that the Victorian government "cannot rule out taking some further action [with increased restrictions], but we will update people as soon as we know".

"It’s fair to say that the next 24 hours are going to be particularly critical."

Alternative venues outside of NSW and Queensland – including Canberra, Perth and Adelaide – are part of contingency plans being considered to host Origin I, though Abdo was confident the MCG fixture would go ahead as planned.

"It’s early days," he said.

"At this stage, we are monitoring the situation very carefully but if we have to increase the protocols [for players] we will and if we need to consider a contingency plan for where we play Origin I, we will.

"We are looking at several venues for that but we would have to see a significant increase in the number of community cases and the potential for lockdown in Victoria before we would consider that."

The Storm have their entire top 30 NRL squad, as well as development players and 19 staff in camp with them on the Sunshine Coast.