The Daily Telegraph<\/a> reported Josh Papalii is set to play after overcoming an ankle injury to line up in the qualifying final. <\/p>\n\u201cNews just in and a massive boost for the Raiders, Josh Papalii has thrown off the moon boot and he will line up for the Raiders,\u201d Lara Pitt said on Fox League. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a big in for the Raiders,\u201d Kevin Walters said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a very important player, particularly for the start of this game. It will be physical and big Paps knows how to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Earlier Mal Meninga urged the Raiders not to play Papalii if he was not fit. <\/p>\n
\u201cI personally feel that I hope they are not thinking to the future,\u201d Meninga said on Fox League. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping they are all just concentrating on this game, but they have got another opportunity next week and it\u2019s against Cronulla at home again, so I wouldn\u2019t risk him if he\u2019s no good.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing Josh the way that him and Ricky communicate, it will be up to big Paps whether he plays or not. It won\u2019t be Ricky\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut if he feels he is going to let the footy team down, they have got Matty Nicholson sitting as a reserve. They have got so much depth around their middle. Trey Mooney they have all had terrific years. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know it is a big game against the Broncos, but I wouldn\u2019t be risking him because there is a game next week.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, Kieran Foran wondered if the Raiders would play him just for a short stint to give inspiration to the rest of the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cDo you reckon they will just want his presence out there even if he only plays 15 or 20 minutes?\u201d Foran said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is his presence in the dressing sheds that will lift the other guys.\u201d <\/p>\n
But Meninga believes if he does not play he will fill that role anyway and they can\u2019t afford to carry an injured player. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be in there anyway,\u201d Meninga said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is that father figure. Everyone feels safe and comfortable with him there, there\u2019s no doubt about that. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut everyone also understands that if he can\u2019t play he can\u2019t play and they are a fit footy side. There is not too many injuries going through the squad so I would have 17 fit players playing against the Broncos.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ricky Stuart gave an update on Papalii\u2019s injured ankle saying he would need to improve in their final training session to line up against the Broncos. He trained yesterday (Friday). He would need to train better today though to play,\u2019\u2019 Stuart told The Daily Telegraph. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe only did about 10 to 15-minutes of yesterday so we\u2019ve been training as though he won\u2019t be playing all week. There\u2019s no use in risking him and or playing where he\u2019s going to be a liability and Josh wouldn\u2019t play anyhow, if he thought that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Stuart also rubbished claims from the Broncos camp that he was playing mind games over Papalii\u2019s fitness. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been too busy focusing on a game instead of making it about me,\u2019\u2019 Stuart said. <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t need it.\u201d <\/p>\n
A photo of Josh Papalii\u2019s injured right ankle, meanwhile, was revealed by Code Sports. Papalii suffered the ugly injury after rolling his ankle during a training session, with Broncos bosses reportedly cynical regarding the veteran enforcer\u2019s potential to miss the clash. <\/p>\n
However, initial fears were Papalii had suffered a broken ankle, such was the pain he was in. \u201cI thought it was broken,\u201d Papalii told the SMH. <\/p>\n
\u201cI legitimately tripped over my own foot. I rolled the left ankle and rolled the right ankle inward at the same time. <\/p>\n
The main issue was the left ankle. There were no breaks, just a lot of swelling.\u201d Papalii will reportedly be given until the captain\u2019s run to prove his fitness.<\/p>\n
The Broncos are expected to be 1-17, with Gehamat Shibasaki returning to the team from his suspension. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canberra star Hudson Young has been outstanding, scoring one and setting another up as the Raiders and Broncos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[1813,4426,64,63,689,7292,21686,33856,70804,96718,4428,22323,2667,4532,4457,22331,17343,4540,96720,43457,96722,62845,46859,763,2105,96721,82652,28072,4518,4485,17340,7290,3194,4484,22334,11639,7287,5093,12412,96717,27554,63073,92635,761,762,673,4495,158,677,4421,22329,13390,64903,4458,13391,7291,96719,4595,96723,85,670,4522,53149,4515,4417],"class_list":["post-142000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-ankle-injury","tag-ata-mariota","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-capital-territory","tag-ben-hunt","tag-ben-talty","tag-blockbuster-finals","tag-blockbuster-qualifying-final","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-broncos-team","tag-canberra","tag-canberra-raiders","tag-corey-horsburgh","tag-corey-jensen","tag-daily-telegraph","tag-danny-levi","tag-father-figure","tag-final-training-session","tag-fit-footy-side","tag-fletcher-baker","tag-footy-team","tag-fox-league","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-home-final-hoodoo","tag-hudson-young","tag-jaiyden-hunt","tag-jamal-fogarty","tag-joseph-tapine","tag-josh-papalii","tag-kaeo-weekes","tag-kevin-walters","tag-kieran-foran","tag-kobe-hetherington","tag-mal-meninga","tag-mark-nolan","tag-match-centre","tag-matt-king","tag-matt-nicholson","tag-matty-nicholson","tag-mind-games","tag-moon-boot","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-newcastle-knights","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-owen-pattie","tag-patrick-carrigan","tag-payne-haas","tag-qualifying-final","tag-raiders-team","tag-reece-walsh","tag-ricky-stuart","tag-right-ankle","tag-sebastian-kris","tag-sharks-snap","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-tom-starling","tag-training-session","tag-wests-tigers","tag-zac-hosking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}