Leeds Rhinos captain Kevin Sinfield hasn’t ruled himself out of Friday’s vital final Super 8s fixture at the Giants.

There were fears the record-breaking skipper could have played his final game for the club when a dead leg forced him to hobble out of last Thursday’s home defeat by Castleford Tigers.

But the injury has responded well to rest and treatment and Sinfield is confident that if he doesn’t make it for Friday, he’ll be available for the play-off semi-finals the following week.

“I am much better than I was on Thursday and Friday,” said Sinfield.

“It is probably too early to say whether I’ll make Friday, but there is a small chance.

“But definitely the week after I will be fit for the semi-final, barring anything dramatic happening, so I am pretty happy about that.”

Sinfield, who is the third-highest points scorer in rugby league’s 120-year history, will leave the sport at the end of this season to join Rhinos’ rugby union sister club Yorkshire Carnegie.

And he has admitted that when he picked up his knock early in last Thursday’s second half, he did fear his glittering Rhinos career could have come to a premature end.

“As soon as it happened, it locked up straight away,” added the 35-ye3ar-old.

“I couldn’t run and I needed to get off before something happened in the game that was down to me not being able to run. Those thoughts (that his Rhinos career could be over) certainly crossed my mind.

“I’ve had something like this before, in a World Club Challenge at Elland Road and I missed the next four games.

“It was the right thing to do to come off, I couldn’t run anyway so I had to, but it is nowhere near as bad as that and it is just a matter of time.

“For this week I may be close, but that call will probably be made on Thursday or even Friday morning.”

Half-back/hooker Rob Burrow is hoping to return this week after three games out due to a quad injury suffered in last month’s Challenge Cup win over Hull KR, but forward Stevie Ward (Achilles) could be a doubt.