St George Illawarra five-eighth Jamie Soward has earned a call-up to the Country Origin side after three players were ruled out of Friday's clash with City in Orange.

Soward was called in as a replacement for his Dragons teammate Ben Hornby, who failed a medical test on his thigh injury suffered in the Dragons' 12-11 win over the Warriors on Sunday.

Dragons centre Matt Cooper (hip) and Newcastle backrower Steve Simpson (knee) have also been ruled out.

Wests Tigers backrower Chris Heighington will come in as Simpson's replacement, with Dragons centre Beau Scott going from 18th man to replace Cooper and Melbourne prop Brett White joining the squad.

The three players will join the camp in Orange on Monday night.

Country coach Laurie Daley said it was a tough call to rule out the trio.

"You run the risk when you have guys like that in your team of them not being right and then you've got to call someone up at the last moment," Daley said.

"You've got to make a judgement call ... those guys are all disappointed we ruled them out but unfortunately that's the way it has to go with a short preparation."

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