Queensland Origin hero Edrick Lee edging closer to NRL return almost 500 days in the making

It's been almost 500 days and counting since the greatest night of Edrick Lee's rugby league life, but the Knights flyer still still doesn't know when he'll play again.

It was November 2020 when Lee dived over for a try in his State of Origin debut for Queensland, in front of a packed Lang Park filled with family and friends, his cousin Brenko wearing maroon beside him.

After coming into the team barely 24 hours before kick-off, Lee ended up playing a blinder as the so-called «worst Queensland team ever» pulled off a classic Origin heist on the highly fancied Blues, securing a historic series upset with a 20-14 victory in Origin III.

It was a game straight out of a dream, and one that granted the cousins Lee entry into Origin folklore.

If either of them pays for a drink north of the Tweed for the foreseeable future, Queensland simply isn't doing it's job.

«Having the opportunity to play Origin with my cousin, in the city we grew up [in] in front of all my family and friends and all of Queensland, that was the biggest highlight,» Lee said.

«Even just being in camp after the year I had, with some injuries and the passing of my mum, there was a lot of hardship, but I really finished it on a high.

»It's a moment I'll cherish for a long time, for the family side as much as anything else."

It was the unexpected peak of Lee's career, the night of a lifetime, and if it was going to be the final game Edrick Lee ever played it was as good a note as any to finish on — and given Lee's injury troubles in the days since, it very nearly was.

But after a summer on a train-and-trial deal with the Knights, Lee signed a top 30 deal on Wednesday that will keep him at the club for the rest of 2022 and, with a bit of the luck that has deserted him