Ill Hodgo says he will play Panthers - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Ill Hodgo says he will play Panthers

Wayne Heming 12/05/2011 01:34:08 PM Comments (0)

Recently re-signed centre Justin Hodges has declared he'll line-up against Penrith on Friday night despite again failing to train with Brisbane on Thursday morning.

The Test centre who signed a new three-year contract with the Broncos on Wednesday is still feeling a little off colour after being laid low this week with a flu virus.

"I'm still a bit crook in the stomach and I just didn't want to risk stirring it up," Hodges said as he watched Darren Lockyer's captain's run at Red Hill.

Coach Anthony Griffin was more than happy to let his strike weapon rest up another day purely as a precaution.

"He'll play tomorrow night, he's just getting over the last little bit of the flu so we gave him the morning off to make sure he is rested up," said Griffin.

"He's not in doubt. He's 90 per cent right. We didn't want to train him and risk stirring it up again."

Brisbane can set their season up with a win before they enjoy a bye with four points moving them to a healthy 18 NRL points entering Origin.

They'll then hopefully be ready to welcome back last year's club player of the year Josh Hoffman, last year's NRL rookie of the year Matt Gillett and try-scoring back-rower Ben Te'o from injury.

"We're well placed at the moment but we're certainly not feeling comfortable or thinking we can drop a game," said Griffin who rested his four Test stars from last weekend's 29-22 loss to Melbourne.

"We're all disappointed we lost last week (to Melbourne) we should have won that game.

"We're certainly not sitting back thinking we're travelling well."

Griffin said with Penrith's players put on notice following the appointment of Phil "Gus" Gould as coaching director the Panther's wouldn't lack any motivation.

"There's a lot happening down there and we're expecting nothing else but a really red hot clash tomorrow night."

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