South Sydney are playing down a training injury to Blake Taaffe as club great Sam Burgess made a surprise appearance at the Rabbitohs' captain's run at Redfern Oval.
Taaffe, filling the giant boots of the suspended Latrell Mitchell at fullback for Friday night's round one match against Brisbane, limped off Redfern Oval after rolling his ankle in a divot.
But coach Jason Demetriou insisted Taaffe was in no doubt for the Broncos clash at Suncorp Stadium.
"He's fine. He's just got a bit of an impingement but he'll be fine," Demetriou said after overseeing his first captain's run as a head coach.
"He's done a lot of work the past two weeks to get ready for the game so we didn't need to push him on which might (make it) swell a bit more.
"But he's fine, he's good to go."
Coach of Orara Valley near Russell Crowe's property in Group 2 on the mid north coast, Burgess cut a conspicuous figure at Redfern on Thursday.
Demetriou, though, said Souths' former skipper and 2014 Clive Churchill Medallist was merely there to present Cameron Murray his first captain's jersey.
"And as Sam does, he spoke really well. I'm a big fan of what Sam's done at this club, especially as a player," Demetriou said.
"I know how respected he is and the boys loved seeing him in the change rooms there today.
"He's lived it. As a player when he was here, he never asked anybody to do anything he wasn't prepared to do himself and I know how much Cam respects him and how much it meant to him to have that jersey presented to him today."
Burgess was last week fined $30,000 and suspended from any official club roles for 12 weeks for taking illicit drugs in 2018, threatening another rugby league player the same year and then breaching NSW law in February 2021 by driving a motor vehicle with traces of an illicit drug in his system.
But that suspension was deemed time served after the Englishman stood himself down from club duties in late 2020.
Still, Demetriou said Burgess wouldn't serve any role at the Rabbitohs this year while undergoing a coaching apprenticeship in the country.
"Not this year. He's pretty heavy in what he's doing up there; coaching and managing and running a club up there," Demetriou said.
"It's good what he's doing. It's great for Sam's development as a coach. To get out and coach your own team and run your own club is the best pathway that you can have.
"Assistant coaching is great and you learn a lot but it's not head coaching."
Demetriou is making his own NRL head coaching debut on Friday night after serving his own lengthy apprenticeship under Wayne Bennett.
He said he hadn't received any last-minute advice from the super-coach.
"He's given me plenty of wisdom over the past four years, five years and I'll be touching base with him this afternoon, if he answers his phone," Demetriou said.
"But hopefully I'll get to see him while we're up in Brisbane."
