Cooper Cronk expects to once again be targeted by Sam Burgess on Friday as they meet for the first time since the South Sydney hitman shattered his shoulder blade.
Cronk will go down in Sydney Roosters folklore after playing through the pain of a 15cm fracture in his scapula in last year's grand final win over Melbourne.
The former Queensland and Australian champion suffered the injury the week prior when he was belted by Burgess in the Roosters' preliminary final win.
Ironically, it was compared to Burgess' effort to play with a fractured eye socket in the Rabbitohs' win in the 2014 decider.
And Cronk said he was in no doubt he would be in the English back-rower's crosshairs once again when their sides meet at the SCG on Friday.
"I run away from contact, I don't think I'll be getting Sam Burgess back," Cronk said.
"He plays the game the way he likes to play it. So no doubt at some stage he'll be giving me a shirt full of sore ribs."
Cronk, who is off-contract at the end of 2019 and considering retirement, said there were no long-term effects from the famous injury.
"I'm confident but I don't know who's going to whack me this week," Cronk said.
"It's just about doing everything that needs to be done. I did all the recovery and ticked all the boxes and the last thing to do was to play a game of football in the World Club Challenge game and it held up. So no excuses.
"There's demons in my head but nothing to do with what happened with my shoulder."
Cronk said being targeted by big forwards was part of the game and expected it to continue as long as he plays.
"It's the way the game is played these days, defence tries to limit the opposition in terms of their skill and time," Cronk said.
"It is what it is, I've been used to it for a long time. I'm not going to sit here and complain about it."
