BRISBANE Roar star Luke Brattan has vowed to play through the agony of another abdominal injury, willing to get needled up to ensure he finishes the season.

The Roar’s most consistent midfielder of the past two years fears he retore an ab muscle in his heroic effort to block a goal-bound shot in Brisbane’s 3-2 win over Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Saturday.

He suffered a similar injury towards the end of last season and required off-season surgery that ended any hope he had of joining English Championship club Brighton and Hove Albion.

“It felt like I redid it but I’ll get scans and if necessary, I’ll get an injection,” Brattan said.

“I said straight away that I wasn’t coming off after I did it. I’ll definitely be playing the rest of the season.”

media_camera Brattan suffered a similar injury last season.

The seventh-placed Roar are guaranteed to play finals footballs for a fifth successive season following Perth Glory’s exclusion from the playoffs for breaching the A-League’s salary cap.

But the Roar have a legitimate top-six berth in their sights, believing they can overtake sixth-placed Melbourne City.

City are now four points ahead of the Roar, but Brisbane have three fixtures remaining compared with the Victorian club’s two.

“We’re not worried about what’s going on with Perth. That’s up to them. We’ve got nothing to do with it. We’re just looking at ourselves,” Brattan said.

“We can still come sixth ahead of Melbourne City. They’ve got a tough run and if we can pick up some points in the next couple of games, we’ll be up there. If we do end up in the finals, we’ll give it everything we’ve got.”

The Roar’s run isn’t easy either, with two matches this week against competition favourites Melbourne Victory.

“They’re a great team. They’re around the top of the table for a reason,” Brattan said.

“But we’ll be prepared for it.”

The teams meet on Wednesday night in a catch-up fixture at Suncorp Stadium and at the same venue on Saturday night.

The Roar are yet to decide whether they will appeal against the decision to send off defender Daniel Bowles in the dying stages of the win over Adelaide.

Bowles was dismissed for a last-man foul on Reds defender Nigel Boogaard, but Boogaard was clearly in an offside position at the time of the incident.

Brisbane can ill-afford further disruptions at the back, with four defenders — Jade North, Jerome Polenz, James Donachie and Shane Stefanutto — on the injured list.

The Roar are hopeful that the knee injury that forced attacking weapon Brandon Borrello off the field against Adelaide won’t keep him out of Wednesday night’s clash.