Penrith veteran James Maloney has targeted the club's final-round NRL clash against Melbourne to make his return from a knee injury.
After suffering an MCL injury in their round 22 win over Gold Coast, Maloney will miss his second game in a row when the Panthers visit the Warriors on Friday.
But the NSW State of Origin star said he should be back in full training next week.
"The doc checked the knee out (Monday) when we come in. I'm in the brace until (Wednesday), then I should get out of that," Maloney said on Sky Sports Radio on Tuesday.
"I'll run on the Alter-G machine (Wednesday) and then Friday I should step it up and have my first rehab running.
"Then I'll be right to kick off full training with the boys next week and play Melbourne."
Maloney admits he is unsure whether his teammates have been distracted by coach Anthony Griffin a fortnight ago after the team were upset by Newcastle on Saturday.
He said they were determined to make the most of being in the finals.
"Obviously it's hard to find out and get inside people's heads and what they're thinking, but from looking around the feeling is that was dealt with the week it all happened," he said.
"Everyone moved on and understand that we put ourselves in a good position.
"We weren't going to let something that's happened above us dictate how the season would end and waste an opportunity."
He hoped a turnaround in form would come in expected wet weather conditions this week.
"Sometimes playing sides that you expect yourselves to beat, it's easy to fall into that habit of here we are, we'll just play and blow them away because we're a better team," he said.
"The good news is it's pissing down rain in New Zealand all week and it's going to be a wet-weather football game.
"So hopefully it's the perfect conditions to get us back to going direct and getting in that grind of field position and earning your points."
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