South Sydney captain Sam Burgess will be missing from their top-four clash with Melbourne after all – but it’s not because of an NRL judiciary backflip.

Burgess was ruled out of the game after picking up a quad issue that Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett admits could keep him out for two weeks.

Rabbitohs medical staff made the decision after Saturday’s captain’s run.

“He did it last training session on Thursday. Maybe one week, maybe two,” Bennett said on Saturday.

Teammate Braidon Burns will also miss the match due to a hamstring complaint, with Kyle Turner set to line-up in the centres in Gosford.

The Burgess injury comes after days of criticism over the judiciary’s decision to downgrade his grade-two shoulder charge on Cronulla fullback Matt Moylan.

While Moylan was forced to miss Friday’s six-point loss to Penrith, the grade-one verdict freed Burgess to face the Storm.

Bennett was originally upset with Burgess’ shot after the Sharks game, but wasn’t surprised when his star forward enjoyed a successful night at NRL headquarters.

When asked by AAP whether he was surprised by the outcome, Bennett said: “A lot of people don’t understand the system.

“If you look at the grade ones, Sam was very comparable to what people have been previously charged with as grade ones.”

Bennett reminded critics that Burgess hadn’t pleaded not guilty to a high tackle.

“He understood he’d done the wrong thing,” he said.

“But at the same time, he was graded grade two and it wasn’t comparable with all the other ones that had gone before him and been graded with grade one.

“So that’s how we presented the case.

“And that was what the judiciary saw, that there was a disparity between what he did and what other players had done and they’d only been graded grade one.”

Bennett went on to point out that other players had been knocked out from grade-one high tackles in the past, which formed part of their defence on the night.

He said the inconsistency lied with the match review committee’s original charge.

“The anomaly is not with the player, it’s with the system. They haven’t been consistent with what was grade ones and grade twos,” Bennett said.

“The judiciary, they’re independent of the match review committee. And it’s the way it should be and should never change.

“They could see the disparity was between the grade one, and grade was unfair on Sam. That’s why he got graded back to one.

“If you understand that, you don’t have any criticism because it’s fairness.”