Penrith have confirmed club champion Nathan Cleary will return from his latest hamstring issue to face Canterbury in Round 10.
The Panthers pulled Cleary a day out from Thursday’s victory over South Sydney, despite the star halfback making it through the captain’s run.
The reigning premiers were keen to take a cautious approach to Cleary’s fitness, given he had felt some tightness in his hamstring after the Round 8 away game against North Queensland.
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The five-day turnaround between that clash and the meeting with Souths also influenced the call to bring Brad Schneider in to replace Cleary.
Cleary’s understudy during his initial injury lay-off, Schneider was important in the Panthers’ eventual 42-12 win.
Coach Ivan Cleary blamed himself for not making a decision to rest his son earlier in the week so as to give Schneider more time with the team.
“That’s on me, we should’ve made that call earlier,” he said.
“We wanted to see how (Nathan) would go yesterday, hoping he’d get through it without any dramas.
“In the end, it just seemed to be too much risk.
“Brad came in and had done zero reps this week, or the week before, so I think he did pretty well.”
Cleary was effusive when asked whether Nathan was expected to line up against the Bulldogs at home next Friday.
“Yes,” he said.
The coach also confirmed fullback Dylan Edwards would be fit despite coming off in the final 10 minutes of the win over Souths.
“Wherever I can, I try to give guys like ‘Yeoy’ (Isaah Yeo) and ‘Dyl’ a rest,” he said.
“Dyl’s always complaining about something so I gave him that tonight.
“Those two in particular are just absolute machines so I saw an opportunity.”