Strike Parramatta centre Tiana Penitani claims she remains on track to play in the NRLW grand final, despite not yet training with teammates this week.
Penitani is battling to overcome a quad injury she suffered a fortnight ago in time to play, with the 26-year-old well aware she is up against it to recover in time.
One of the stars of NSW's State of Origin backline, Penitani is only considered an outside chance by the Eels and was named on an extended bench in No.21.
She is however back running away from team training, and is giving herself some chance of being at full fitness by Sunday afternoon to take on Newcastle.
"I'm racing against the clock at the moment, but I've still got a few more days up my sleeve" Penitani told AAP.
"Obviously we want the the fittest players in the team to be to be preparing, like they're all playing.
"I don't want to be a distraction for the team, so I'm working away in the background, doing everything that I can. But if I'm fit, I'll be playing.
"I won't know until I actually do those runs through the back end of the week. But so far, so good. I'm checking all the boxes at the moment"
The fact Penitani and Parramatta are preparing for a grand final is still something of a miracle.
Winless after the opening four rounds, the Eels came from behind to beat Brisbane in the last round and snuck into fourth place in the six-team competition.
They will enter Sunday as outsiders, but were able to knock off the previously undefeated Sydney Roosters in the semi-final.
Penitani also pointed out that it was unfair for the Eels to be judged off their 1-4 regular-season record, given the short season gave little times for teams to gel.
Parramatta in particular were impacted by that, with a new halves pairing of Ashleigh Quinlan and Tayla Preston only meeting months ago.
"That longer season is the beauty of having a really long season for the men. And that's something that we're aspiring to get to in the women's game," Penitani said.
"That's the one of the biggest challenges that we do face. Who can perform as quick as possible, who can gel as quick as possible.
"In the men's game no-one talks about first 10 rounds. It's a really tricky thing to to be able to just gel and perform.
"At the end of the day, it's literally game seven for us in our season. That's the grand final."
