Penrith winger Michael Gordon has emerged as shock candidate to fill the vacant utility role on the NSW bench for Origin I, but a goalkicking crisis could force coach Ricky Stuart to elevate him to the run-on 13.

Gordon's impressive early season form for Penrith and strong showing for Country Origin on Friday night have caught the eye of Stuart, leaving the NSW Origin incumbent in a three-way dogfight for the one vacant wing berth with Akuila Uate and Jarryd Hayne or Josh Dugan, who are battling it out for the No.1 jumper.

But Kurt Gidley - who would have been the Blues super sub for game one if not for a shoulder injury - said Gordon would make the perfect utility player off the bench, backing the Panthers pointscoring whiz to adapt to the foreign role of back-up hooker.

"Maybe a guy like Michael Gordon could fill that utility role," Gidley said on the Nine Network's The Footy Show on Sunday.

"... the thing with Michael Gordon, he covers all the backs and he's going to be sharp out of dummy half."

While Gordon would be a left-field selection as a back-up No.9, the groin and thumb injuries to favoured NSW No.6 Jamie Soward mean Gordon could be required in an 80-minute role as winger and first-choice goalkicker, given there are no other fulltime kickers in the squad.

Soward seemed certain to win selection for the series opener on May 25 at Suncorp Stadium until the double injury blow in Friday night's City-Country match.

St George Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett said he expected his pivot to return for Friday night's meeting with Canterbury, after Soward and several other Dragons missed Sunday's 22-8 win over North Queensland.

"Jamie should be right, (Jason) Nightingale will be right, optimistic (Darius) Boyd will be right, (Nathan) Fien should be right," Bennett offered.

"We're looking ok."

But should Soward miss the NRL ladder leader's game against the Bulldogs, his Origin selection chances will nosedive,given the diminutive playmaker won't have played a game for almost three weeks by the time Origin I rolls around.

That would leave Jarrod Mullen and Mitchell Pearce as the likely halves pairing, but there was also the looming return of reigning Dally M medallist Todd Carney to complicate matters.

Stuart all but ruled out Carney as a shock game one candidate, with the wayward playmaker in line to make his return for the Sydney Roosters on Sunday afternoon following his suspension and rehabilitation for alcohol-related issues.

A big game for the Roosters against Cronulla would no doubt heap pressure on Stuart and co-selector Bob Fulton to throw Carney into game one, given he already had an established combination with likely NSW halfback Pearce.

Dragons hooker Dean Young gave his Origin chances a nudge with a strong display against the Cowboys, but it was fitness rather than form which could prove his undoing, as it did with his Country Origin chances.

"At the moment, I'm doing about 15 minutes of ballwork the day before the game," Young said.

"They wanted blokes to train so that's (why I was unavailable for Country).

"I'm sure Ricky knows what I can do. That's for him to decide."

In Sunday's other game, the Warriors made it three wins on the trot with a 34-14 road defeat of Gold Coast, while Manly could move back into the top four if they beat Canberra on Monday night.

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