Newcastle halfback Jarrod Mullen remains hopeful of salvaging his NSW State of Origin prospects after he was cleared of serious damage to his shoulder by a specialist on Wednesday.

Mullen spent the first half of the day attending the NSW 40-man squad orientation camp in Sydney knowing his season could be ended at an appointment with his specialist later in the afternoon.

However, the 22-year-old received a significant boost when he was told his shoulder injury, which he dislocated early in the loss to the Wests Tigers on Sunday, would not require surgery.

It was initially feared Mullen would miss the rest of the year if he required a full shoulder reconstruction, or at least six weeks with an arthroscope.

News he only requires rehabilitation is a major boost to the Knights, who have lost prop Ben Cross (biceps) for at least five months already this week.

"It's feeling better every day so fingers crossed it's all good," said Mullen at the Blues camp.

"I will just do all my rehab and get it right."

Mullen played on with the injury against the Tigers after receiving several painkilling injections at the halftime interval.

While he has played through pain in the past, Mullen admits he is no chance at tackling Brisbane on Saturday in what would have been a NSW shootout against leading halfback contender Peter Wallace.

"It's still a bit unstable and I'd be pretty mad if I played this weekend," he said.

"We jabbed a couple of needles in there (against the Tigers) but to be honest it didn't really work, it still hurt.

"It is getting better every day and hopefully it will be alright."

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