Parramatta five-eighth Kieran Foran is not expecting to train until the match eve captain's run this week as he continues to manage his workload while club medicos try to get to the bottom of his hamstring pain.
But an upbeat Foran told NRL.com that despite the ongoing discomfort he's not in doubt for the Round 3 clash against Canterbury on Friday night.
"It's not too bad. It's improving – it's good without being great," Foran said.
"We're just working on it day by day and trying to get it to the point where it's pain free at the moment. It got through the [Cowboys] game all right."
Foran said the Eels are confident there isn't much to be concerned about despite the fact it's unclear exactly what is causing the issue.
"It's just getting over the hurdle of pain at the moment. The guys have been really god here of trying to work out what the issue is," he said.
"I've had a history of it so obviously there's some damage there and it's trying to work out what's causing that pain at the moment. It's just a day by day, week by week thing 'til we work out a solution for the pain."
Foran's previous issues with a bulging disc in his back may also be a factor in his hamstring problems.
The Kiwi Test pivot said while he wasn't anticipating doing any field sessions this week he expected to do the captain's run on Thursday morning and line up for Brad Arthur's side at ANZ on Friday night.
"I'm just looking at doing captain's run at the moment so that's the unfortunate thing. The boys trained really well [on Tuesday] and they were aware I wasn't going to be training just due to monitoring my loads and keeping me off my feet trying to get on top of this," Foran said.
The 25-year-old wasn't too concerned his absence would hurt the team's ability to build its new combinations.
"I think Brad hit the nail on the head after the game when he said the main thing is defensively we've been good and he said basically the attack will take time, it's a new team with new combinations and I agree with him 100 per cent," he said.
"The main thing is our defence is on and you can win games from your defence and I think as the season goes on you'll start to see the fluency of the attack and the combinations will build the more we play with one another. I don't think it's a concern this time of year.
"As long as you're all on the same page in defence and holding the ball in attack well the plays and all that will come later in the season.
"The main thing was it was great to get back out there on the weekend. I really enjoyed it, it was great to get the win and although it did pull up sore from the game but we're pretty confident that a few days rest I'll be back to where I was before Cowboys and able to get through the game again."
