Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge is confident he is all but over a stomach virus which threatened to derail his AFL grand final campaign.

Hodge was bedridden last weekend with a fever which forced him to call a doctor to his home and was ruled out of the side’s preliminary final win over Adelaide.

He said he was still trying to rebuild his strength but believes he will be back to full fitness to lead the side out in Saturday’s premiership decider against Sydney.

“I am feeling a lot better now,” Hodge said on Tuesday.

“I started to get crook on Thursday night and I came to train on Friday and felt okay,” he said.

“My energy levels were okay, they weren’t too bad.

“Then I got hit again on Friday night and was pretty much in bed from 7.30 Friday night, then called the doctor about nine o’clock on Saturday morning.

“I just couldn’t get out of bed, I was going from freezing to the sweats and then had a fever.”

Hodge said he had serious doubts about playing the following day when he found he was unable to eat for a 24 hour period.

“I thought if I had gone and tried to play I would have been useless to the boys,” he said.

“We had three fit emergencies who were raring to go so I thought the best thing to do – and the doctor pretty much pushed that way – was to let one of them come in and play.”

Hodge said he had been quarantined away from the team for four days.

“Hopefully all goes well and it won’t be coming back this week,” he said.

“This week I’m just worried about getting the body right and getting some food back in the guts.”

Hodge, meanwhile, praised the decision by defender Brent Guerra to rule himself out of the grand final with a hamstring problem.

“Since Clarko’s (coach Alastair Clarkson) has been here he has always pushed to put the team before yourself,” Hodge said.

“Gooey (Guerra) came and spoke to us yesterday. Since he hurt his hammy three weeks ago he’s done everything possible to get himself right.

“Honestly in his heart he knew he couldn’t get through the rigors of a grand final and for a person who loves footy and would do anything to play in a grand final, for him to say that, it’s a great effort from him and it just goes to show how much he does care about the fellows,” he said.