Roosters back-rower Boyd Cordner says a hip pointer injury won't affect his availability or performances in the closing weeks of the 2015 Telstra NRL Premiership.
Cordner – one of the form players of the competition over the past two months – picked up the injury just before half-time in last week's 20-18 qualifying final loss to Melbourne.
"I got a knock, a bit of a hip pointer injury, I was in a little bit of pain there just before half-time," Cordner said.
"I went up and saw the medical staff and physios and got a bit of treatment and I was able to come out and play the rest of the game.
"It won't be any different this week [in the semi final against Canterbury on Friday night], I'll be working really closely with the physios and medical staff here at the Roosters.
"I'll be sweet by Friday, it's not a massive injury or anything like that. I can't do any more damage to it, it's just one of those things that's going to be there for a bit and I'll be sweet."
Cordner said he isn't sure yet if he will require a painkilling needle on the injury to play but it won't matter to him either way.
"I'll work with the physios and get some treatment throughout the week and see how it pulls up on Friday and either way I'll be sweet to play," he said.
Cordner will once again be a key man as the Roosters look to halt a powerful Bulldogs forward pack in the knockout final. Having earned a second chance by virtue of finishing in the top four, the Roosters are now using that chance and are desperate to avoid being the first minor premiers since the Dragons in 2009 to bow out of the finals in straight sets.
"Being sudden death now we haven't got that second chance [anymore]," Cordner said.
"It's not where we wanted to be, obviously we wanted to win last week but it wasn't to be. But that's the beauty of finishing in the top four, you get that second chance. We're coming up against a pretty classy Bulldogs team, it's sudden death now, it's finals footy and we'll be ready to go by Friday.
"They've got a massive forward pack and when they're on they can be pretty dangerous. We know what they did last year making their run to the grand final [after finishing seventh]. We know the challenge that's ahead of us and we're looking forward to it.
"We know the work we've done throughout the whole year has got us to the position we're in now. I know the squad we've got here and I know the potential that we've got and I truly believe we can go on and win this thing."
The last time the Roosters and Bulldogs met, in Round 21, the Roosters shot out to a 22-0 lead after as many minutes before amazingly falling behind 28-22 then charging home to win 38-28.
"We had a lot of ball in the first half [in that game] so we knew the momentum was going to shift a bit," Cordner said.
"They were pretty good at getting back in the game and they got in front and that was unacceptable by us in our defence. Hopefully we don't let that happen again. If we can get out to a lead like that it will be pretty handy but we've got to work on a lot of things from last game to get right for Friday night's game."
Cordner said the Roosters had some "massive improvements" to make from last week's loss in order to be successful against Canterbury, and was disappointed the side didn't produce their best football.
"Defensively for us it was one of our poorer performances throughout the whole year. It's not acceptable by us and it's something we'll have to get right come Friday night and I'm pretty confident we'll be sweet there," he said.
"Our attack as well wasn't where we're at normally but in saying that we were only a goal kick from being into golden point. It's not to be, we're in the position we are now and we're looking forward to Friday night and the challenge we've got ahead of us."
