New South Wales legend and current assistant coach Andrew Johns has backed Latrell Mitchell to cover as five-eigth for the Blues in Game II at Suncorp Stadium.

With Nathan Cleary injured and ruled out for an extended period, Penrith teammate and incumbent number 6 Jarome Luai’s position is under immense pressure with several candidates lining up to fill the halves positions in the must-win match in Brisbane.

“Someone threw a left field one at me this morning and said ‘do you reckon Latrell could play five-eighth?’,” Johns said on Wide World of Sports’ Freddy & The Eighth podcast.

“I said ‘of course he could’.”

With Blues head coach Brad Fittler’s job on the line – and sitting beside him for the show – Johns conceded it was important to see how possible selections performed on the weekend.

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“I can’t say… because I don’t know who I’d pick.. I haven’t given it much thought.”

Meanwile Melbourne Storm superstar Ryan Papenhuyzen has shot down speculation he could return sooner than anticipated after a story appeared online.

Papenhuyzen jumped on Twitter and directly replied to the post, “Yeah look , not quite.”