Brisbane officials are hopeful star five-eighth Darren Lockyer will be fit to play in Origin I after the Broncos skipper suffered a reoccurrence of an ankle injury in Friday night's 16-8 NRL loss to Cronulla at Toyota Park.

Lockyer limped from the field after twisting his ankle in a tackle by Sharks lock Greg Bird after 58 minutes, Queensland selectors with their hearts in their mouths as he made his way straight up the tunnel.

The Maroons captain injured the same ankle earlier this season but made a quicker than expected recovery to return after missing just the one game.

A dejected Lockyer refused to speak after the game, but Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen said the club's medical officials were confident the Queensland linchpin would be right for the May 23 clash with NSW.

"The doc said it doesn't look as bad as last time, last time there was a lot of swelling," Cullen said.

"This time he walked off in reasonably good shape. The swelling's not as bad as last time so he thinks it's just a reoccurrence of that old injury but perhaps not as bad.

"Last time he missed two weeks, just the one game. Origin is two days short of two weeks (away) so at this stage he'd be a reasonable chance you'd think."

Lockyer's untimely injury blow took the gloss off what was a purposeful Sharks effort, backrowers Bird and Paul Gallen doing their NSW Origin hopes no harm as they dragged the home side back from an 8-0 deficit after 10 minutes.

Having come up with several big plays in defence, the pair landed the killer blow in attack early in the second half when Gallen brushed off a David Stagg tackle inside his own half before finding Kevin Kingston and eventually Bird in support to set up a 16-8 lead.

"Not many teams can allow a team with that many representative players and the premiers get off to an 8-0 start," Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart said.

"To come back like we did, I thought the longer the game went the more we were going to be involved in it."

The loss left the premiers with only three wins after nine rounds, and with the hectic Origin period just about the hit the club like a ton of bricks their chances of back-to-back titles are hanging by a thread.

"We probably thought tonight was a must-win for them with the Origin around the corner so we probably lifted," said Sharks skipper Brett Kimmorley, who did his own Origin chances no favours with a quiet performance.

"Obviously when Locky got hurt, we were able to defensively tighten up a bit more and got a bit more physical I thought when he went off."

Having taken over an hour to open their account against South Sydney last week, the Broncos wasted little time in getting on the board with tries to Steve Michaels and Tonie Carroll making it 8-0 after ten minutes.

The Sharks awoke from their slumber when a nice inside ball from Kimmorley sent prop Craig Stapleton galloping downfield, Fraser Anderson showing good strength on the next play to go over against his old club.

A Luke Covell penalty locked it up at 8-8 at the break before the winger added another two just after halftime when the back-pedalling Broncos were ruled to be offside following a 40-metre bust from fullback Brett Kearney.

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