BY STAFF WRITERS

Mitchell Pearce will have the chance to put more than a decade of State of Origin hell behind him after being parachuted into Blues camp to replace Nathan Cleary who has been ruled out with injury.

Cleary had been fighting an ankle injury but has been scratched from State of Origin III next Wednesday opening the door for Pearce to return.

It isn’t the first time we’ve seen a last-second change to a set of NSW halves in Sydney with Pearce joining the likes of Brad Fittler, Andrew Johns, Brett Finch and Shaun Timmins.

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Cleary trained behind closed doors in Randwick on Wednesday morning.

Pearce has never won an Origin series with 18 games against his name but is however in the form of his career at club level. He joins former teammate James Maloney in the NSW halves, a pairing that led the Sydney Roosters to a premiership in 2013.