NRL: Shaun Johnson hoping to shake off heavy knocks and play in Warriors finale

Shaun Johnson returned from injury in the heartbreaking loss to Manly. Photo / Getty

Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson will be given until game day to prove his fitness but is no certainty to play in Sunday's final round NRL clash against Wests Tigers in Sydney.

Johnson made a successful return from six weeks on the sidelines with a knee injury to play in last Sunday's heartbreaking 22-21 golden point loss to Manly, but is again in doubt to play this weekend after sustaining a couple of heavy knocks.

Kearney confirmed Johnson's recovery will be closely monitored throughout the remainder of the week and the 26-year-old will make the final call on whether he takes the field at Leichardt Oval.

"We're giving him as long as possible to get himself right and if he doesn't feel right we certainly won't risk it," said Kearney. "Last week he had a wonderful week's preparation and he felt really comfortable with it.

"He took a couple of knocks on it, one early, and it was pretty visible, he was limping around out there but then it came right.

"We'll just see how he pulls up in the next couple of days."

The 13th-placed Warriors head across the Tasman having lost their last 10 games in Sydney and desperate to avoid claiming a club record nine straight defeats in a season.

Despite being out of finals contention and having coughed up a seven-point lead in the last six minutes to eventually going down to the Sea Eagles in extra time, thanks to a Daly Cherry-Evans field goal, Kearney insists his players' spirits remain high.

After finding themselves behind 8-0 after 24 minutes the Warriors came back to level the scores at halftime and pushed ahead again to break a 14-14 deadlock in the second-half before it all went horribly wrong.

"We had a review yesterday and trained today and their attitude has been wonderful given the circumstances," he said. "But they did a lot of things right on Sunday and what they didn't do right ultimately cost us the game in the end.

"So it was about making sure that they understood that and they took the lesson from particularly the last five or six minutes.

"We spoke about that yesterday, so the attitude has been wonderful and I can't fault them on that.

"We want to make sure that go over there preparing well to put in a good performance for our last game of the season."

Win or lose against the Tigers, the Warriors will begin their season review process late next week, with players and staff to be taken through and assessed on what they did right and wrong throughout yet another disappointing campaign.

Kearney indicated the club is getting closer to confirming some new signings for next season, with in-demand Kiwis captain and Brisbane Broncos front-rower Adam Blair expected to make a decision on his future in the coming days.

"There will be some players coming in," he said. "We should be getting some news over the next week or so. There was a bit of a pause a couple of weeks ago, when someone was potentially looking to buy the club, so that sort of went on hold for a bit.

"We've managed to get that sorted out and hopefully we should have a couple of announcements in the next week or so."