Hess says knee injury won’t stop him

COWBOYS youngster Coen Hess is confident his injured knee won’t sideline him from Saturday’s preliminary final blockbuster with the Roosters, adamant he “can’t use the wimp card” with several teammates playing busted.

Hess went down in agony late in the first half of Saturday’s win over Parramatta clutching his right knee, but played on before leaving the field with 13 minutes left.

The 21- year- old’s knee was heavily strapped for the second half and he wasn’t moving freely.

But the Cowboys medical staff is hopeful he has escaped with just a medial injury, similar to that which Shaun Fensom and Te Maire Martin have played with in recent weeks.

“That’s what the doctor said it might be,” Hess said. “He said my knees are pretty flexible, which gives me a lot of confidence.

“Obviously I was in a fair bit of pain there. I was more scared than anything, obviously knee injuries can be pretty serious.

“I’m icing it up now and I’m pretty confident I’ll be right.”

Hess said he had little option to play on given Fensom and Martin have refused to use it as an excuse, while John Asiata scored the first NRL try of his career playing with a broken hand. The Queensland Origin star scored a try off a Martin inside ball in the second half to help keep the Cowboys’ fairytale march through the finals alive.

“Because they’re playing with it I can’t pull the wimp card, I’ll be good,” he said. “When I strapped it up it felt a whole lot more stable. Any pain there seemed to go away.”

Hess said the Cowboys’ defensive focus has been the basis behind pulling off successive boilover wins over the Sharks and Eels in Sydney in successive weeks.

“Both ( Parramatta) tries came off our mistakes and our last- tackle options,” Hess said. “They didn’t go through us or around us. Through the back end of the season that’s where we came unstuck, letting teams go through us.