Munster cleared of serious injury

Scans have cleared Melbourne Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster of serious shoulder damage but he is set to sit out round 25 before returning for the finals.

Munster left the field late in his side's 36-6 win over Manly at Lottoland on Saturday evening.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy conceded Munster was in doubt leading into the clash and then he re-aggravated a niggling complaint between his left shoulder and neck region.

Melbourne's general manager of football Frank Ponissi on Sunday said Munster's scans came up well but the five-eighth was likely to miss the round 25 clash against the Cowboys.

"He irritated his neck/shoulder issue but he is fairly good today (Sunday)," Ponissi said.

"It's likely that we will rest him this week and put him on ice for the finals."

The Storm wrapped up the 2019 minor premiership with the 30-point win but Munster's availability for next week's clash against North Queensland at AAMI Park is now in question. Storm must gauge the risk at this stage of the season.

"He was in doubt for this game, we ruled him in yesterday," Bellamy said.

"He had something to do with his neck or shoulder ... He's a tough rooster as everyone knows."

Bellamy labelled his side claiming the minor premiership in 2019 as the most special during his time at the club given the recent exits of stars including Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Ryan Hoffman over the past two seasons.

"This is the youngest group of players the Storm have ever had," Bellamy said.

"There were some doomsayers who at the start of the year thought we might have dipped a bit. I don't put expectations on us. Some of those younger blokes have been outstanding this year.

"Not only have they been consistently good but consistently tough, especially mentally.

"We've only been beaten four times this year and the margin has only been four points. That's pretty consistent. I reckon this one is a little bit more special than the other ones we've won."

Bellamy has left regular No.7 Brodie Croft out of the line-up over the past fortnight to experiment with Ryan Papenhuyzen and Jahrome Hughes in the spine - at fullback and halfback respectively.

"We like most of what we seen tonight, we had a lot go our way," Bellamy said.

"We like what Papenhuyzen brings on the ball and he's a tough rooster as well.

"It was a really tough call for me to leave Brodie out but we just thought with the top two position sewn up we had room to experiment.

"It all depends, we might be able to go in with the team [next week] that we're probably going to go in with the semi-final."