After six weeks stranded in the unknown, Penrith fullback Lachlan Coote is confident he'll make his long-anticipated return against the Roosters in Saturday night's elimination NRL final.

Coote has been sidelined since round 21 with osteitis pubis, a nasty groin injury which athletes find so difficult to rid themselves of.

But after having his return date continually put back as the weeks have gone by, the brilliant No.1 is almost 100 per cent sure he'll be right to take on the high-flying Roosters.

"I'm feeling pretty good, I had a training session this morning and I've been running alright and the physio has cleared me to do some full training this week," Coote told AAP.

"We were going to have another week off if we had the win but obviously things have changed and we've got to play this week so hopefully I'll be right getting through the full training this week and be on the field on Saturday.

"I'm pretty confident, obviously we'll have some full-on training on Wednesday and on Friday but if I get through that I'll be sweet."

Penrith will be missing plenty of grunt in the forwards this week with Frank Pritchard and Trent Waterhouse scratched, but what they're lacking in the engine room, Coote is hoping to make up for with his attacking flair.

While Michael Gordon has been doing a fantastic job filling in at the back, Coote was one of the form players in the competition before he went down, and his injection will give the struggling Panthers a timely boost with their premiership hopes hanging by a thread.

"That's for sure, hopefully I can add something to the side and hopefully we can get the win and keep going on," he said.

"I'm very excited and I feel very fresh at the moment, I just can't wait to play some footy.

"At the start of the year I was happy with my game and then this came on and I was a bit disappointed, but I'm looking forward to getting back out there and playing some footy."

The Panthers have been set back on their heels with news that international second rowers Pritchard (hamstring) and Waterhouse (pectoral) are out for the rest of the season.

They will at least welcome back inspirational prop Petero Civoniceva from suspension.

Coote said he was incredibly frustrated watching his team-mates falter against Canberra last Saturday, but revealed the mountain men are confident of picking themselves up off the canvas.

"If I could have picked up the chairs (I would have thrown them) but they were screwed into the ground, it was pretty frustrating to watch," he said.

"Especially when we hadn't played that bad for a while and the boys were just very disappointed.

"We've showed in the past this year that we've got a lot of depth in our side and people have been able to fill those spots and hopefully we've got players to come up and we're not affected by it."

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