Graham out for the Cowboys

by NRL

North Queensland Toyota will be without their leading try scorer, winger Ashley Graham, for the Monday Night Football clash with Wests Tigers.

Graham suffered a small fracture to his ankle, as well as a severe sprain, late in last Saturday night's victory against Melbourne and remains in a walking boot.

The results of an MRI scan this afternoon will give the Cowboys a better indication on the time the reigning Cowboy of the Year will spend on the sidelines, but he is expected to be back before the finals series begins.

His place in the starting team to face the Tigers will be taken by Kalifa Faifai Loa, who will play his fifth NRL game for 2012.

In the other changes to the Cowboys team that moved up to sixth place thanks to the 20-16 defeat of the competition leaders, forwards Scott Bolton and Cory Paterson have been named on a five-man interchange bench with Jason Taumalolo dropping back to the Intrust Super Cup with the Mackay Cutters this weekend.

Kickoff at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Monday will be at 7pm.

Follow @nthqldcowboys Twitter feed for live score updates and team news. To join as a Toyota Cowboys member, contact the Membership Team on 1300 GO COWBOYS (1300 462 692) or visit www.cowboys.com.au/membership.

COWBOYS: 1 Matthew Bowen, 2 Kalifa Faifai Loa, 3 Brent Tate, 4 Kane Linnett, 5 Antonio Winterstein, 6 Johnathan Thurston [c], 7 Michael Morgan, 8 Matthew Scott [c], 9 Aaron Payne, 10 James Tamou, 11 Gavin Cooper, 12 Glenn Hall, 13 Dallas Johnson. Interchange: 14 Anthony Mitchell, 15 Ricky Thorby, 16 Ashton Sims, 17 Scott Bolton, 18 Cory Paterson (one to be omitted).

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