North Queensland representative prop Matt Scott is under an injury cloud after failing to train ahead of Saturday night's NRL clash with Wests Tigers at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

The Queensland State of Origin forward carried a back injury into last weekend's tough 22-12 win over Newcastle and there were rumours he could be rested from the game after a tough few months.

Coach Neil Henry has left a decision on Scott until game day.

He's labelled the home clash against their 2005 NRL grand final victors the "battle of the desperates".

"They'll be very keen to get some points," warned Henry, who has been unable to settle on his final squad until game day.

"We need to defend our position on the table and play well at home which we've done for the last seven games.

"They're desperate to get some momentum to climb up the ladder and we're desperate to stay in the top four (just ahead of Brisbane)."

Question marks over the fitness of hooker Aaron Payne and centre Willie Tonga were eased after training on Friday with both expected to play.

Tonga had been running at about 80 per cent during the week with Will Tupou on standby.

"Our halves are fine, Ray Thompson and Michael Morgan," said Henry.

"Brent Tate comes in on that right edge and everybody's very excited about him playing his first game for the club on Saturday night."

Young giant Tariq Sims could start or feature off the bench while Corey Paterson will be in the squad with Ah Mau Leeson in some doubt.

The Cowboys missed an alarming 45 missed tackles in their upset win over Newcastle last weekend but Henry said that statistic was a little misleading.

"That's a lot of missed tackles but to only concede 12 points it shows how well we scrambled and how hard we worked on our try line," he said.

Henry has done his homework on the lethal Wests Tigers left side attack which hasn't fired recently with the Tigers scoring just 16 points from their last three games.

"Robbie Farah gets out of dummy half with his left foot kick, Chris Lawrence will be better for the run after 12 rounds out with his hip injury and so will Benji (Marshall) who missed a few weeks with a knee.

"They'll be better for the run and their combination on the left side of the field is very dangerous."

Tigers coach Tim Sheens said while Johnathan Thurston was the world's best halfback the Cowboys showed against Newcastle they can still win without him.

"Last week to beat Newcastle in Newcastle without JT was a great result and I think they've got (Brent) Tate back and Tariq Sims back and Matty Bowen is on fire.

"He (Bowen) is always been a worry for any team, let alone up there.

"They're a strong outfit and not in the position they are in by fluke so we're in for a tough game."

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