The immediate playing future of powerhouse Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei remains unclear after he suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury in the win over Canterbury.

"The Beast" wasn't expected back until round six, but coach Ivan Cleary rushed the Kiwi international back into the team after he came through training well last week.

Vatuvei first damaged his hamstring in the Warriors' round three win over Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium, but medical staff had full confidence the 112kg winger would come through fine against the Bulldogs when he was brought in as a late-inclusion.

Cleary said he was puzzled as to what went wrong after Vatuvei hobbled from the field just five minutes into the second half of Saturday's 30-24 win at ANZ Stadium.

"I don't know, it's just a strange one that, there's something going on there because he was right to play and did some good things but obviously there's still a bit of an issue there," Cleary said.

"It's a bit of a mystery, but I'll certainly appreciate it when he can get on the field.

"It started mid-week, he basically came through everything and trained on Thursday, got through the whole session, so we brought him over ... and he got through everything.

"He was feeling really good so it was one of those things.

"(It was) possibly a risk, but he means so much to us and I'm sure he gave the boys a big lift being out there but clearly there's a bit of an issue there and we've got to sort it out."

Vatuvei showed glimpses of his barnstorming qualities in the first half, scoring the Warriors' second try.

He said he didn't know how long he'd be out for, although another stint on the sidelines appears likely.

"I'm not too sure yet, it's just kind of hard to tell how bad it is," Vatuvei said.

"I thought it was bad (when I first did it) but after one week it felt pretty sweet, so I'm not too sure yet, just see how it goes through the week."

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