Battling a broken hand and shoulder complaint, Wests Tigers captain Robbie Farah said he is still very much "touch and go" when describing his availability for his side's important clash with the Broncos on Sunday afternoon.
Having missed the Holden State of Origin decider due to his broken hand suffered in the Tigers' Round 16 loss to the Panthers, Farah said that while his hand is improving slowly it's a matter of how it progresses throughout the week.
"I really haven't done much with the bye so [Monday's] our first day back at training, I plan on slowly increasing the load throughout the week," Farah said.
"Our physio has already told me not to even try and convince him to play. They want to make sure I'm 100 per cent before I'm back and I'm still battling my shoulder injury as well so I'll see how I go through the week and if I'm a chance I'll keep nagging him to try and change his mind."
Watching the Tigers' last-start loss to the Eels from New South Wales camp alongside club and state teammate Aaron Woods, Farah was hopeful of his side's chances for this weekend's clash against the ladder-leading Broncos.
Frustrated by the 12-4 penalty count against his side in the Parramatta game, Farah said it makes playing well difficult when other things aren't necessarily going their way.
"I thought our commitment and effort were great but we were unlucky with certain things. In the second half, I guess we conceded a few soft tries but we weren't helped by other things which went on out there," Farah said.
"It's not an excuse, but it doesn't make it any easier when those calls go against you. You're battling for confidence, you're battling to win footy games and then to compound that you're getting calls which go against you which makes things difficult.
"I'm sure no one will give us a chance [against Brisbane] but we have to go up there confident and play a bit of footy. The boys have been working hard at training but we haven't been getting the results but if we can continue to work the way we have then the results are around the corner."
Meanwhile Farah said he made the decision and told his teammates he wasn't going to play for New South Wales in the Origin decider six days before he was publically ruled out.
Farah added he couldn't decide whether it was tougher watching on from the coach's box as the Blues succumbed to a record 52-6 loss, or not playing at all.
"Obviously it played out a little differently within the media but I didn't want to impact the boys' preparation over speculation about whether I was going to play or I wasn't," Farah said.
"It was becoming a distraction for the boys so on the Thursday morning [before Origin III] I spoke to the boys and told them I wasn't going to play. It was probably the toughest decision I've ever made but we thought it was what was best for the team at the time.
"It was a tough week watching the boys prepare and knowing I wasn't going to be out there. Obviously I was hoping and praying they'd get the job done but to sit back and watch the way the game went down was one the toughest things I've ever had to sit through."
