It says even more about Horsburgh's dedication that he's willing to take a step back from the NRL side with the pending comeback of in-form prop Joe Tapine from a rib injury.

The Raiders' assistants will be tasked with picking the team on Tuesday for this weekend's must-win game in Newcastle, and have some big decisions to make in the absence of suspended coach Ricky Stuart.

Emre Guler played in Tapine's place against the Dragons, with Horsburgh promoted to the interchange after a successful NSW Cup return last week.

In what was his first NRL game since round 16, Horsburgh said he was feeling good, however he is prepared for Guler to get the nod ahead of him on the bench if Tapine is back in the starting line-up.

"Just because of my lungs, I'd say I'll go out," Horsburgh said. "I'm back to my playing weight, it's just my lungs still.

"Obviously [I do want to be back]. I felt like I did alright [against the Dragons]. I wasn't back to normal me, but every week I feel better and hopefully by the time we make the finals I'll be back to full health."

Before he was suspended for his now infamous "weak-gutted dog" outburst, Stuart said he was keen to bring back Horsburgh when he had recovered. Stuart was just as up-front with Horsburgh in their one-on one discussions.

"Ricky is a legend. I've been pretty open with him," he said. "Ricky asked me if I wanted to play last week but I said I wasn't up to it.

"He listens and knows what he's doing. Whoever he picks for Newcastle, we'll do our job."

The 110kg, 188cm tall Raider was totally floored by the illness, and said he'd never experienced anything like it before.

"It was was pretty rough. I was coughing blood, and vomiting blood," he said. "It knocked me around a bit, but I'm nearly back to full health now.

"I couldn't eat. Anything I would eat, I couldn't swallow it. I don't know why, my body just wasn't letting me.

"I think it was three days of no eating and then after that I could only eat little feeds, so it took me a week before I could eat normally."

Horsburgh said the illness struck fast. He tried to sleep off "the shivers" one afternoon, but when he woke up he knew it was serious and quickly rang the doctor.

"I was just ruined," he said. "I wasn't scared but I knew I wasn't right."

His doctor said he could have gone to the hospital but Horsburgh chose to rest and recuperate at home instead, with his sister's help.

"I'm lucky I live with my sister," he said. "She was helping me with everything."

Getting back to footy wasn't far from Horsburgh's mind, but he had a few hurdles to overcome with his lung infection proving persistent.

"It was probably three days I was really crook, then I tried to do a training session and I was getting really sharp pains in my lungs because I had fluid there still," he said. "Then they had me on really strong medicine.

"I lost eight kilos. My body was so rundown.

"It took me two and a half weeks till I could exercise again. I'd do a little run and get the pain. That's when they scanned my lungs and saw the fluid still there so the doc said to have another week off.

"It settled down after that."

Horsburgh is confident he will be able to contribute at his peak again soon, but admitted he still isn't quite there yet.

"Because I've been very fatigued, I've struggled when I hit that wall to get my breath back," he said. "I've struggled to get that second wind."

The Raiders need all the help they can get in the last three weeks of the regular season with their hopes of finals relying on a perfect finish.

They received a boost with skipper Elliott Whitehead escaping a bizarre "hip-drop" charge from the match review committee after being put on report against the Dragons, and it's a kind run home for the Green Machine facing the Knights, Sea Eagles and Tigers.

Horsburgh believes their finals dream is still alive while conceding that the late-game fades need to be stamped out.

"We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times [on Sunday]. That's the story of year - we just can't really ice the game," he said.

"We found form now, we just had a little slump in the middle of the year that hurt us.

"We're ready and we've played a lot of finals. If we get there, we'll shake it up, we just need a bit of luck to go our way.

"Newcastle will be a good one. Some teams have to lose, and we've got to keep winning.

"We know every week is pretty much a grand final for us."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: