Warriors great Simon Mannering is prolonging the agony when it comes to his retirement decision.
The NRL club's most capped player admits making the "scary" call to hang up his boots is proving harder than he thought and is grateful to be given more time.
Mannering had indicated he'd announce his retirement, or otherwise, during the Warriors bye round last week but backed away when it came to the crunch.
"If I'm not playing and that's the decision, then it's a pretty scary one," he said.
"The club's been really good. They've said don't rush. I sort of thought they needed to know sooner, rather than later, with salary cap reasons and all that."
Second-rower Mannering is in his 14th straight season at the Warriors and needs to play 12 more games to become their first triple centurion.
The workload is easing for the 31-year-old, who has been deployed off the bench in recent games.
After a sub-par performance by his standards in their last-start loss to South Sydney, Mannering wants a handful more games to assess his form and decide if he's still up to the rigours of top-flight rugby league.
"It's a big decision. I've probably got more things to weigh up now than previous times I've been off contract," he said.
"You still want to offer something on the field.
"If you don't think you're physically up to that then I wouldn't want to be taking anyone's spot in the team or holding the team back in any way."
Meanwhile, the 44-Test veteran doesn't think he's in Michael Maguire's plans for the Kiwis Test against England in Denver.
He likes the concept and would be keen to play but after a "yarn" with Maguire, he suspects the new coach has got changes on his mind.
"I just think there's a lot of good players around these days," Mannering said.
"We'll see where he wants to take the team. I just want to see the Kiwis do well, whether I'm involved or not."
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