St George Illawarra NRL five-eighth Gareth Widdop remains an outside chance of taking the field against the Wests Tigers on Saturday, according to halfback Benji Marshall.
Widdop underwent scans on Wednesday on a badly injured quad, suffered in last week's defeat to Gold Coast that looked set to rule him out for at least a week.
However, Marshall insisted his halves partner could still line up this weekend to help the eighth-placed Dragons lock in the last spot for the following weekend's finals.
"I'm not sure if we've lost him yet," Marshall said on Thursday.
"He trained on Tuesday and went alright - then, all of a sudden, a bit of bleeding from the cork.
"So touch wood, yesterday's scans went alright and hopefully it changes tomorrow."
Should Widdop be ruled out of the clash, rookie playmaker Drew Hutchison is expected to take his place in the halves.
Hutchison's last appearance, a heavy defeat against Brisbane in round 23, attracted unwanted attention when the 20-year-old played just 27 minutes off the bench as coach Paul McGregor opted to start forward Jack de Belin in the halves.
Joel Thompson has already been ruled out this week with the back-rower re-straining his hamstring, while Dylan Farrell is being rested as he continues recovery from a stress fracture in his back.
Unless the Dragons get thrashed by the Tigers and Manly do a similar job on Cronulla, they will remain eighth because of superior points for and against.
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