Glenn pins hope on 'secret healers' to fix hamstring

Alex Glenn has turned to trusted "secret healers" to cure his hamstring injury as the Broncos skipper explores every avenue to be fit for round one against the Cowboys.

NRL.com understands Glenn has been seeing a favourite acupuncturist to work on his hamstring as he pins his hopes on traditional Chinese medicine.

The 31-year-old watched the Broncos 28-22 trial loss to the Titans at Redcliffe before speaking about his chances of being fit in a fortnight, and of his willingness to think outside the box.  

"I can’t give away my secret,” Glenn grinned when asked who the "secret healers" were.

"I’ve been doing everything by the rehab coaches and physios and I’ve got some outside men helping me and keeping me on the table.

"We’ve all got them up our sleeve, bro. I’ve had a few people in my circle that have looked after my body really well and it has kept me out here competing with the younger people, but I’m not dropping any names."

Glenn said he was "confident" of taking his place in the team in Townsville but could give no guarantees.

"I’m tracking really well but I don’t want to be here saying I’ll be ready to go, and then come round one I’m not ... but it has been progressing really well,” he said.

"With hamstrings at my age you’ve got to be smart. The physio said 'you’ll heal to about eighty or ninety per cent really fast but it is the last ten or twenty per cent that you’ve got to be really smart', so I’m being really smart.

"I’ve been around the traps a long time and I know how to take care of my body."

He said stand-in skipper Pat Carrigan, Thomas Flegler and Payne Haas impressed him in Saturday's trial loss to the Titans but if he is out of action in round one, Brisbane may have to field two debutant forwards on the bench.

Ethan Bullemor, Jamil Hopoate, Rhys Kennedy and development list forward Jordan Riki, who would need special dispensation from the NRL to face the Cowboys, are options.

That quartet played against the Gold Coast and while Kennedy is expected to come into the 17, the rest of the bench did not set the world on fire against the Titans with coach Anthony Seibold admitting they "learned a few lessons".

With Keenan Palasia out for the season with an ACL and Matt Lodge (partial ACL tear) and Joe Ofahengaue (suspended) unavailable for the Cowboys clash, Glenn’s availability is critical to Brisbane's hopes.

"It definitely hurts having myself and Lodgey out, and obviously Joe missing a couple of games as well, but I've got all faith in the boys and what we’ve been working on in the pre-season," Glenn said.

"If I can get out there in round one it is going to add some strike, but the rest is with the man upstairs."