Jahrome Hughes resumes training after suffering calf injury

Jahrome Hughes had a “good trot” on Sunday as he returned to training from a calf injury, but the star Melbourne Storm playmaker concedes he still has boxes to tick to ensure he plays in Friday’s preliminary final showdown with Penrith.

The Storm halfback was an anxious spectator as Melbourne “got pretty lucky” in last Friday’s last-gasp win over the Roosters that set up the Sydney showdown with the reigning premiers for a place in the grand final.

Hughes said he was extremely conscious of not putting his hand up to play if he wasn’t fully ready to go, and while he thinks he’s “tracking very well”, he knows his ability to train this week will determine whether he can play in the do-or-die clash.

“I‘m tracking really well. I’ll take it day by day, I don’t really want to rush anything,” he said on Monday.

“I’ve just to get back into training. I didn’t train very much at all last week, I sort of left it to the back end of the week and didn’t get over the line. This week I have started really well, I had a trot yesterday.

“I’m a competitive guy, especially around finals. I was probably giving the physio a headache last week telling him that I was sweet but he didn’t think so.

“The thing I don’t want to do is go in underdone. If I can’t get through the game it puts my team under pressure, so I’ll make sure I’m ready to go.

“I ran really well yesterday but calves are tricky … I’ll definitely be smart about it.”

Winger Xavier Coates looms as another potential inclusion for Friday’s game, with Hughes having identified fixes for Melbourne as he watched his team battle to a win over the Roosters.

Penrith has won both clashes against Storm this season and four of the past five between the two teams with a 102-50 scoreline over those matches.

Three times in the past five encounters, Melbourne has scored just a single try against Penrith, and Storm’s attack remains an issue having gone scoreless in the opening final against the Broncos.

But Hughes said he saw “big steps” forward in the win over the Roosters and rejoining his team’s spine, having played just once in a month after being rested from the final round of the regular season, wouldn’t impact their cohesion.

“I thought we made big steps compared to the week before. I thought out spine played really well and got a bit more opportunity than the week before,” he said.

“I probably haven’t been training with the team a lot lately but I’ve been out there among them, so I know what we need to do, what’s expected.

“I think if we play our footy we’ll be right. Penrith play right up until the final whistle, so we need to be able to do that.”