It was the ninth game Marshall has missed with the recurring injury this season but Dragons chief medico Tony Ayoub said on Wednesday that he made the call and that he is “adamant” that Marshall will be OK this week.

“I can’t say it enough, he wanted to play [against the Titans],” Ayoub said.

“We were being cautious. He was willing to stick his neck out for the team with the hole that we’re in. I made the call based on his history but he was ready to go.

“He had a big big running session on Saturday and he’s pulled up really well. He trained fully [on Wednesday] and we don’t expect him to have any issues before the game this week. 

“He’s going to take his place, I’m pretty adamant about that. It was just more of a precaution than anything else.”

Ayoub said Josh Dugan is already making a quick recovery from surgery on a fractured jaw suffered in Origin III and will return to training on Thursday.

“He’s coming along OK. I spoke to him late [Tuesday] night to see how he was traveling and he’s feeling a lot better,” Ayoub said.

“The pain that he had and the nerve pain, because he had one of his nerves exposed after the fracture, has settled down.

“He’s in a good place and we’re actually going to get him in in our next training session and do something with him that’s how good he’s going. It’s less than a week after surgery and we’re going to gt him in on Thursday for some training. 

“We’ll have an appointment with the surgeon next week and we’ll have an idea of when we can get him back. At the moment it’s looking [like] at least four weeks.”

Veteran winger Jason Nightingale was shifted to fullback in Dugan’s absence against the Titans but will revert back to his regular spot on the flank this week as Kalifa Faifai Loa contemplates season-ending surgery on a fractured cheekbone.

It’s seen Adam Quinlan recalled at fullback with Kurt Mann remaining on the left wing where he scored two tries against the Titans last week.