Melbourne Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes is firming for a shock return in Round 27.
Hughes suffered the injury early in the second half of a Round 21 clash against the Sydney Roosters, and has been working his way back ever since.
While he was able to avoid surgery immediately, the injury generally requires as much time as possible to rehabilitate, with the risk of re-injury extremely high.
Despite that, the Storm, who are locked into the top four and will have a double chance in the finals no matter how the final two weeks of the season goes, are preparing for Hughes to be available for Round 27.
Assistant coach Ryan Hinchcliffe told News Corp that he is training with the team and a chance to clash with the Broncos next weekend.
“At this stage I think he has a chance,” Hinchcliffe said.
“He has been training with the team now for two weeks and working really hard on his shoulder rehab.
“If he gets through this week - he obviously has to do a bit more contact in and around the back end of this week and the start of next week - but if he gets through that, he will certainly be in the picture.”
Melbourne are already in full preparation mode for the finals, resting five players for this weekend's game against the Sydney Roosters.
They are still an outside chance at the minor premiership, but will be relying on the Canberra Raiders dropping at least one of their games.
Hughes, one of the best players in the game, will be critical to any run Melbourne are able to make through the finals, with his return likely seeing Tyran Wishart fall back to the bench and Jonah Pezet drop out of the side.
In other news, Will Warbrick is likely to play this weekend after returning through the QLD Cup last week following a nearly five-month layoff for concussion.
