Queensland legend Billy Slater is out of State of Origin I at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

It comes after Maroons coach Kevin Walters told media earlier on Monday that the iconic fullback would play.

Slater has been hampered by an ongoing hamstring injury.

“I didn’t pull up as well as I would have liked after our training run on Sunday, and because I’m not 100 per cent, it’s in my best interests as well as the team’s to withdraw from Wednesday’s game,” Slater said.

Maroons coach Walters said Kalyn Ponga and Anthony Milford will fly to Melbourne tonight.

“We knew we had some concerns with Billy, but he’s a champion player and we needed to give him every chance to play,” Walters said.

“We’ve had plans in place to cover Billy if he didn’t come up right, and we’ve actioned that today with Anthony and Kalyn coming in.”