South Sydney star Sam Burgess has opted to contest his dangerous contact charge at an NRL judiciary hearing on Wednesday evening.

English international Burgess is facing a one-match ban which would rule him out of Saturday’s NRL clash with Newcastle unless he is exonerated.

Burgess was charged with grade one dangerous contact to the neck or head, following a high tackle on new NSW State of Origin forward Andrew Fifita during Monday night’s loss to Cronulla.

Ladder-leading South Sydney would be especially keen to have Burgess in action on Saturday after losing Greg Inglis, Ben Te’o, Chris McQueen and possibly John Sutton to State of Origin duty.