Warriors: Henderson doubtful

Hooker Ian Henderson will be given every chance to recover from an ankle injury before the New Zealand Warriors' National Rugby League clash against Manly at Brookvale Oval in Sydney on Saturday night.

Henderson left the field injured late in the Warriors' 22-10 win over Newcastle at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday but was today named in an unchanged squad for the Manly match.

"He's probably a doubtful starter at this stage but we haven't ruled him out of being able to take his place in the side," coach Ivan Cleary said.

Henderson has started at hooker in recent matches, with Aaron Heremaia being injected at dummy half from the interchange bench.

The Warriors will go into the 24th round holding sixth spot on the points table on 28 points, two ahead of the seventh-placed Sea Eagles, who lost 10-32 to competition leader St George Illawarra last night to remain on 26 points with eighth-placed Brisbane. Two points further back are South Sydney, Parramatta and Canberra.

"That result will make them really desperate against us," Cleary said.

"They've been one of the NRL's most consistent sides for a few years now and we know how hard we'll have to work to match them in all areas.

"We got the result we wanted against Newcastle but we will need to be a lot better this week."

Winger Manu Vatuvei goes into the third-to-last regular season match only two tries short of equalling Stacey Jones' club record of 77 tries. Vatuvei's hat-trick against the Knights was his second of the season lifting his tally to 17 in 15 games this season.

He's now third on the NRL's 2010 try-scoring chart behind Newcastle's Akuila Uate (20 in 21 games) and Brisbane's Israel Folau (19 in 17 games).

Saturday's match will be prop Sam Rapira's 99th for the Warriors, leaving him poised to bring up his century in the last home game of the season against Brisbane on August 27. He's set to become the 19th player to appear in 100 NRL games for the club.

- NZPA