NRL star and Queensland State of Origin debutant Kalyn Ponga has revealed how a “life-threatening” brain infection almost took his life whilst still in high school.

Ponga will run out in Origin for the first time this Sunday night but it may have been a completely different story.

“I sort of had infection in my brain – that’s pretty much the most simple way to put it,” Ponga told QRL Media.

“I was out for ages; a few months there. I was just in bed every day, sleeping.”

Ponga will start from the bench for the Maroons.