Fears over the fitness of Iain Balshaw have eased after it emerged he only suffered a minor quadricep tear playing for Leeds in the Powergen Cup final. The England full-back was forced off four minutes into Leeds' shock 20-12 win over Bath and there were fears his Lions' squad place could be in doubt.
But a scan on Tuesday revealed the damage was not as serious as feared.
Balshaw is expected to miss Leeds' clash with Harlequins on Tuesday but could return to face Bath on 30 April.
The 26-year-old has now returned to Leeds following a get-together with the British and Irish Lions on Monday.
And he is confident that after three wins on the trot, the Tykes can stay up despite their position at the foot of the Premiership.
"At the start of the season, people said the players weren't good enough and we weren't playing good rugby, but it takes time to gel together," Balshaw added.
"Now, we've beaten Leicester and Gloucester in the league, and Bath in a cup final.
"We've got to stay positive in these situations. We will enjoy the cup win, but we know that we've got a very hard spell coming up.
"Harlequins is going to be a ferocious game, and then we've got to play Bath again.
"The Cup final was just a one-off. The main thing for us is survival in the Premiership, that's what we want to do, so Quins next week is definitely a bigger game than the final.
"We have got to pull ourselves out of it - we've got the players and the management to do it."
MMIX
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