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Storm star's injury passes first test ahead of final
Melissa Woods, AAP • September 17th, 2025 12:15 pm
Jahrome Hughes feels he's on track to return from an arm fracture to play in the preliminary final | Photo: AAP
Back into training to test his injured arm, superstar halfback Jahrome Hughes is growing in confidence that he will be available for Melbourne's NRL preliminary final.
The Storm will host the winner of Saturday night's semi-final clash between Canberra and Cronulla at AAMI Park for a chance to play in consecutive grand finals.
Hughes missed their qualifying win over Canterbury after fracturing his forearm in the final round, which was his return from five weeks sidelined with a dislocated shoulder.
Jahrome Hughes, pictured with pregnant wife Molly, is desperate to play in the preliminary final | Photo: PR
But the 30-year-old told AAP that his first training session since surgery wearing a new arm brace went well.
"It feels really good ... I got a little brace made up and it was the first training session that I had with it on so it was more a test and trial to see how it's going and it felt pretty good," said Hughes, who was at the Sapporo Supper Club VIP event in Melbourne.
The Dally M Medallist intends ramping up training towards the end of the week and planned to make an early call on playing in the preliminary final on Friday week at AAMI Park to give the team the best runway into the crunch match.
"I didn't do any contact and probably won't for another couple of days," he said.
"Personally, I'd love to train the boys as soon as I can.
"I don't want to be disruptive and just coming in the last day before we play the prelim so if I can't get through at least a good training session this week with the boys, I probably won't play.
"I'm confident ... it's the medical team that's going to have to see where I'm at, but in saying that I'm not someone that's going to put the team under pressure by coming back early so I'm going to be making sure I'm right to go."
In the absence of Hughes, rookie replacement Jonah Pezet was a stand-out with a try assist and a 40:20 to position the Storm for another try, while he also pulled off a try-saving tackle in the 26-18 win.
Hughes wasn't surprised.
"He did a great job on the weekend and I knew and the club knew he had that in him, so there was never any worry," the Kiwi Test No.7 said.
"If I'm fully fit I'll definitely put my hand up but I don't want to be going in at 50 per cent - it's not worth it, especially with having someone like Jonah there, being able to fill the void."
Hughes joked that he was sticking to milk to build some bone strength and would leave the carb-loading to the two sumo wrestlers who had flown in from Japan for Tuesday night's function.
Retired sumo wrestlers Ichinojo Takashi and Hishofuji Hiroki attended the Melbourne event | Photo: PR
Both now retired, Hishofuji Hiroki at his peak was one of the heaviest sumo in the world, weighing in at 260kg, while Mongolian-born Ichinojo Takashi, known as Ichi, won Emperor's Cup at the 2022 Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament.
While the Storm players are known for their own wrestling credentials, Hughes said he was happy to stay outside the dohyo.
"It was actually quite intimidating - they look like true athletes in their sport.
"If I got in with them I'd be getting tossed around which wouldn't be good for me."
