North Queensland NRL coach Paul Green hasn’t confirmed whether co-captain Matt Scott will play in Saturday’s preliminary final, but insists he’s not engaging in mind games.

Kangaroos and Queensland forward Scott, who suffered a serious knee injury in round two, was a shock inclusion in the Cowboys’ initial 21-man squad to play the Sydney Roosters.

Green said he trained well on Friday in Sydney.

“I’m not trying to play games. The rules are that if you want to include someone, you need to name them in your squad so that’s why he’s in the 21.”

Asked whether Scott would play at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, Green said “we’ll see, he trained today so we’ll see how everyone pulls up tomorrow.”

He didn’t anticipate any late injury problems, saying forward Coen Hess and winger Antonio Winterstein had come through well after having issues earlier in the week.

Asked if it would take one of the Cowboys pulling up badly after training or for Scott to pull up well after the session for him to play, Green said “Hmmm, that’s for me to decide.”

Green conceded Scott’s knee and his lack of match fitness could be concerns if he did make the match-day squad.

“But the main concern would be the knee,” Green said.

“It’s been about seven months now which probably, in an ideal world, we’d probably want to wait another few weeks but he’s not far off.”

Green felt he owed it to Scott to name him in the initial squad.

“He’s a leader of the club; he’s a great player; we all how good a player he is,” Green said.

“But he wanted to be included, so I think I owe him at least that.”