South Sydney prop George Burgess will return from a nine-week suspension for Friday’s NRL final against the Sydney Roosters.

Burgess had been named on an extended bench in the No.18 jersey but trained strongly during Thursday’s captain’s run at Redfern Oval.

Coach Wayne Bennett last week said the 27-year-old was no certainty to be rushed back into the Rabbitohs line-up after spending nine rounds on the sideline for his eye gouge on Robbie Farah.

But Bennett confirmed Burgess would play and planned to use him in short bursts at the SCG with a spot in week three of the finals on the line.

When asked if he would have liked to have given Burgess more game time before running him out for a finals game, Bennett said: “In a perfect world that would be nice.

“But that’s not going to happen. We’ve just got to get on with it.”

Bennett also confirmed that prop Liam Knight had passed concussion protocols and will play after having his first training session of the week on Thursday.

Adam Doueihi and Alex Johnston switched between wing and fullback at training and are expected to do the same on Friday night.

The Rabbitohs will be without Sam Burgess after he was suspended for a hair pull.

While a contrary conduct charge usually only carries a monetary penalty, Burgess was ineligible to receive a fine because of his poor disciplinary history.

Bennett would not comment on being without his skipper and said: “I’ve got an opinion about that but I’m not going to share it today.”

While Burgess will miss the crunch game, Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is available after being found not guilty of a careless high tackle on Knight, setting the tone for the clash between the traditional rivals.

“There’s plenty of (emotion) around, there’s a lot of history between both clubs,” Bennett said.

“You look at last week, there was a bit of emotion and passion out there last week so I’ve got to assume tomorrow will be no different.”