South Sydney are confident captain Sam Burgess will play again this NRL season despite continuing to battle a rib injury.

Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire revealed on Friday night he had to personally stop Burgess from playing in Souths’ 36-18 defeat of the Warriors.

Burgess is hopeful of being fit for England’s end-of-season World Cup campaign, but has played with the injury since the side’s round-20 loss to Cronulla a month ago.

However Maguire said he will be given every chance to return against Melbourne next week before the Bunnies finish their season against Parramatta.

“Sam was busting to play (on Friday) and I had to basically say: ‘No, you’re not playing’,” Maguire said.

“He’s on the mend, we’ll have to see how he is throughout the week.”

Speedster Alex Johnston could also be added to the casualty ward after injuring his right hamstring as he completed a hat-trick in the win over the Warriors.

The 22-year-old has provided one of the brightest shining lights for Souths this season, deputising for the injured Greg Inglis at the back.

His haul for the season has now reached 22 – well clear of his nearest rivals – to potentially give Maguire a headache on who should wear the No.1 jersey next year.

The Bunnies will also welcome Queensland’s State of Origin man-of-the-series Dane Gagai into their back line next year, as Maguire attempts to rebuild the club.

But the 2014 premiership-winning coach said he was regularly seeing clear signs in his current troops that the club is ready to get back on track.

“The character of the people we have in our club has really grown and come a long way throughout this period,” he said.

“Obviously it’s been very hard little period, we’ve got a lot of good things going on inside our club.

“We’re continually working to make this a better and stronger club, and there is a lot of positives.”