Micheal Luck is preparing to push his renowned tolerance for pain to new levels, with the Warriors hard man revealing he will play the rest of the season with a broken hand if necessary.
Luck will find out on Thursday if his twice-operated-on hand has healed.
"If it isn't fixedthis time I'll throw needles in it for the rest of the year and get it fixed again next off-season," Luck said. "I'll be playing footy soon. It's just whether I'll be putting up with a bit more pain that I would have to otherwise."
That is surely welcome news for the club after Saturday night's meltdown against the Roosters in Sydney. Luck was, if you'll excuse the pun, sorely missed as the Warriors fell apart in the face of the Roosters' helter-skelter approach.
A supreme defender with a huge ticker, Luck's value to the club is in his mouth as much as his shoulders. He doesn't just make the vital tackles, he marshalls the defence. He is the defensive general without whom the Warriors can look lost.
With Jacob Lillyman also out of the side with a biceps injury, the Warriors are without two of their key tacklers - and talkers - in the middle of the park. Although the classy Elijah Taylor has shown enough to suggest he is a worthy long-term successor, Luck's return can't come soon enough.
While the team needs him, Luck also needs to play. Off contract at the end of the season, he needs to show he can still produce the goods after a horrific run of medical problems that has seen him endure four surgeries since November. He's had a shoulder repaired and a ligament reconstructed on a ring finger, but the main problem has been the bone he broke in his hand during the grand final.
The break was repaired with a screw, however new bone didn't grow around the screw as hoped. That meant a second operation seven weeks ago during which bone was taken from his hip and grafted into the gap where the break is. That surgery left him unable to run properly for a month because of the pain in his hip.
Coach Brian McClennan dismissed a query about Luck's future with a curt: "I'll never discuss recruitment and retention with you blokes [the media]." However it is believed the club wants to see Luck onfield before committing itself to a contract extension.
Luck said he was fine with being asked to prove there is more life in legs that will turn 30 later this month.
"Look, if people don't know what I can do by now ... you know. I've done the same thing in nearly every one of the 220 first-grade games I've played, and I don't think I'll do much different in the future.
"If I am playing footy anywhere next year I only want to be here."
