Wests Tigers skipper Robbie Farah has played down the severity of his groin problem and insists it will not keep him out of action, despite his inability to train.

Farah has been nursing the injury all season but said he felt no discomfort during the game and refused to use it as an excuse for his side's under-par display in their 24-6 defeat to Sydney Roosters on Sunday.

"I got through the game fine, I didn't train a lot through the week, but I was fine out there," Farah said.

"We will see how I pull up, everybody went a bit overboard with what was said in the papers before the game, but it doesn't bother me during the games, but it is a case of will it become an issue not training for a few weeks.

"I'll speak to Tim and see what happens, but it is not affecting me.

"I don't think we could have played any worse than we did in the first half, we got ourselves in game but poor options at the back of the sets let us down."

Sheens said he'd been using back-up hooker George Ndaira during training to give Farah time to recover and said he had full confidence in allowing his skipper to play the full 80 minutes.

"He is watching what is going on in training and we run a replacement which is a bonus, we knew what we were doing when we went out, we were confident ... but you have to be tough enough to defend and we weren't today," Sheens said.

"Some of our options at the back end of our sets were good, we lacked a bit of direction but I am not going to offer up any excuses, at 12-6 we had enough ball to win the game, but we missed a simple tackle midfield and gave up a try to put the 12 points between us again."

Sheens defended his decision to play with Tim Moltzen at halfback after originally naming rookie playmaker Jacob Miller in the starting line-up.

The 18-year-old dropped to the bench but Sheens said he was pleased with the contribution he made when he came on late in the game.

"Timmy has got the experience and is a very quick halfback, I suppose he needed the run, today he got 80 minutes under his belt for the first time in 12 months, we'll see next week whether he will stay or give Jacob a run," Sheens said.

"I spoke to Jacob before the game and told him he may not get a game ... but I rate the kid and at some stage he will play more, but we needed experience on the field."

Bryce Gibbs returned for the Tigers for the first time since round 23 last year, but Sheens played down reports England international Gareth Ellis would be back from an ankle injury for next week's clash with South Sydney.

"There is no-one who I have been told will be back, Gareth won't be ready next week, no chance," he said.

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