Cooper Cronk will be given until the last minute to prove his fitness for Sunday's NRL Grand Final.
Cronk is struggling to recover from an injury to his rotator cuff, which he suffered in the Roosters preliminary final win over South Sydney.
Roosters forward Victor Radley told The Daily Telegraph he would love to see Cronk play in the grand final even if he is not at his best.
“You’d want him on the field if he had one leg,” Radley said.
“For him to stay on the field is bloody courageous. It gives everyone a lift."
“You see him out there, he couldn’t lift his arm out there."
“When you look at him, still on the field, making tackles, you think to yourself if you’re tired ‘he’s a lot worse off than me and he’s still charging through’."
“It definitely brings a lot, with his talk and things like that.”
The Roosters named veteran utility forward Mitchell Aubusson at halfback on Tuesday with Cronk and expected replacement Sean O’Sullivan named on an extended bench.
Roosters captain Boyd Cordner believes Cronk can dictate the final even if he is injured.
“Having Cooper out there not at 100 per cent, he showed how much he can have on a game still. It’s unreal,” Cordner told The Daily Telegraph.
Despite his fitness, Cronk would give the Roosters a confidence boost if he takes the field, according to prop forward Sio Siua Taukeiaho.
“He always turns up in the big moments. That’s why everyone loves to be Cooper... when kids are kicking balls around back home they call themselves Cooper Cronk,” Taukeiaho said.
“Just having him in the side, the way he talks, the way he goes about his game, the way he organises us players. It gets us pumped.”
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