Munster 'optimistic' as 24/7 rehab begins

Cameron Munster has started around the clock race rehab on his injured knee and remains confident of being fit for the Storm's preliminary final in a fortnight.

Munster will go for scans on the knee he injured in the 36-24 qualifying final win over the Eels. Whatever the results, he said a more professional approach to rehab would drive him over the next two weeks.

He has twice missed a fortnight of action this year with an MCL sprain.

After the win at Suncorp Stadium, the Storm five-eighth said he was "a bit sore" following a knee clash late in the second half which forced him from the field, and that he would work closely with the physio staff after scans revealed the extent of the injury.

He said he would have stayed on the field had his side not been 12 points clear.

"I knew there were longer-term [considerations] and it was just a knee clash and my knee buckled a little bit," he said.

"I’m optimistic and that’s all you can be. It is still a little bit sore and is a little bit bruised but I will ice it, rehab it, do the stuff I need to strengthen up my knee and hopefully I can stay on the park for more than one week."

Munster has proven to be a quick healer this year but he said that was as much to do with his own approach to recovery.

"Previous years I was willy nilly and didn't really care. I had some niggles going into games and it showed," he said.

"My body started pulling up really sore and it felt like it wasn’t 100 per cent.

"I have been watching Smithy [Cameron Smith] and blokes around me with that same professionalism and just getting it right, even when I am not even sore.

"I am doing my leg weights, my single leg stuff, knee sits and strengthening my VMO [quadriceps muscle] and making sure I get everything around that knee strong and mickey mouse."

Munster has set his sights on playing either the Roosters or Raiders at Suncorp Stadium in the preliminary final with last year’s grand finalists set to face off in next week’s elimination final. When asked if it would be an around-the-clock recovery mission he said "it will be now".

"It is getting frustrating. I can’t keep doing what I am and need to make sure it is 100 per cent," he said.

"We could be playing back-to-back premiers in a prelim. Then you have got the Raiders who are playing some of their best footy this year without [Josh] Hodgson, so both teams are going to be hard and physical teams."