South Sydney's slim finals hopes have received a boost with star Sam Burgess cleared of any serious damage to his leg after failing to finish Sunday's NRL loss to North Queensland.
Burgess appeared to have suffered a leg injury when he limped off midway through the second half against the Cowboys in Cairns, however the dual-code international didn't even need to go for scans on Monday.
The 20-0 loss against the Cowboys was their fifth successive NRL defeat, leaving them with the difficult task of likely having to win seven of their remaining eight regular season games to make the finals.
The 2014 premiers haven't missed the finals under coach Michael Maguire since his arrival in 2012.
Burgess has endured an inconsistent season in his return after a year away in rugby union, making 97m from 12 runs on Sunday with 34 tackles.
The week prior in the loss to Penrith, he made 209m from 23 runs, 36 tackles and four offloads as well as scoring two tries.
Either way Burgess remains a vital part of the Rabbitohs set-up and they can ill-afford to be without him, however Maguire is doing his best to put a positive spin on the situation at Redfern.
"This club has been through a lot, well before I got here," he said.
After this week's bye, Souths face Brisbane at ANZ Stadium after State of Origin III on Saturday week.
They then play Manly (home), Canberra (home), Melbourne (away), the Warriors (away), Cronulla (home), Newcastle (away) and Canterbury (away) in a testing end to the season.
