Paul Gallen remains unclear if he will return from a back injury for Cronulla’s NRL preliminary final at Allianz Stadium on Friday week.

But the Sharks captain concedes that had the team not earned the week off, he would not have been fit to take the field this weekend.

Gallen was slightly mobile for the first time on Monday after pulling up sore from a routine day of training last Tuesday, but is still struggling to do anything more than a few laps of the pool as part of his recovery from the flared disc in his lower back.

“It’s just a matter of time until that settles down now and no-one knows how long that will be,” he told Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.

“They say they’ve seen things like this settle down in a week, two weeks and sometimes three weeks.

“It really depends on the individual and how I respond to treatment.

“Hopefully next Tuesday or Wednesday I might move around.”

Gallen was so sore he was unable to travel to Canberra to see him team’s qualifying final win over the Raiders on Saturday.

He said the injury came about after a day of field training, followed by a light boxing and gym session.

“I just got really tight and then the next morning I couldn’t get out of bed,” he said.

“I was like that for three or four days.

“It came off absolutely nothing. I wish I was moving house or mowing the lawn so I knew what it was.”

The has missed seven games for the Sharks this season, including two matches last month where he was rested with a calf injury.