Billy Slater racing the clock to be fit for Melbourne Storm’s season opener

BILLY Slater is locked in a race against time to prove his fitness for Melbourne’s season opener against Canterbury as he continues to battle a shoulder injury.

STORM sensation Billy Slater is racing the clock to prove his fitness for next week’s season-opener against the Bulldogs.

The Melbourne fullback is still not certain whether he will get to celebrate his 300th NRL match in Perth next Saturday, as the club continues to monitor his shoulder injury suffered in the Storm’s World Club Challenge victory over Leeds.

Slater fell awkwardly on the same shoulder that kept him sidelined for almost two years and has been kept in cotton wool since.

Slater injured his shoulder in the World Club Challenge.

Slater said while the injury had improved, he still needed the inflammation around the shoulder to go down before he could be cleared to play.

“All going well, I’ll head over to Perth and play in Round 1,” he said.

“It’s improved really quickly and if all the inflammation and everything settles down by next week, I’ll play. But if not, hopefully Round 2.

“Scans showed that everything was on the right track and everything was good.

“There’s no structural damage which is really reassuring. It puts me in a good headspace to get on with rehab and get it feeling comfortable again.”

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The Queensland and Australian star admitted that when he initially fell, he panicked that he could have done some serious damage.

He said it was a “long weekend” as he waited to get his scans but was relieved to be cleared of a long-term injury.

“It gave me a bit of pain after the game for a couple of days,” he said.

“The way I landed ... you can do some damage. Even if it was a healthy shoulder, there would have been some bruising and inflammation around the shoulder.

“Given the history with the shoulder and because there was a little bit of pain back in it, I was a little unsure of what was going on inside.”