UPDATE: HAWTHORN skipper Luke Hodge says his right hamstring is “fine” ahead of the team’s main training session before the AFL grand final.

Hodge told KIIS 101.1 today: “It’s fine, it’s no problems ... I think it was a bit of a beat up from the media.”

He said he planned to see the club’s physiotherapists this morning.

Several thousand Hawks fans will be at the club’s Waverley Park headquarters today to watch the noon training run.

Hodge and teammate Jack Gunston will be at the centre of attention after they were put through their paces in a secret training session yesterday.

Concern surrounded Hodge after a heavy landing in Friday night’s preliminary final win over Fremantle saw him require treatment to his hamstring, with some commentators also suggesting he may have sustained a concussion in the fall.

Gunston — who hasn’t played since injuring his ankle in the team’s qualifying final loss to West Coast — is racing the clock to play, with a potential heartbreak looming for the teammate that has to make way for him to return.

Hawks fitness boss Andrew Russell and coach Alastair Clarkson oversaw yesterday’s session on the players’ day off, that is reported to have included running, changing direction and kicking.

The session was not official but was captured by TV cameras.

WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

Both players took things very lightly at training Tuesday, only appearing for five minutes and completing stationary handballing drills.

Hodge, 31, was 15 minutes late to training Tuesday, engaging in stationary handballing drills with Gunston and a group of VFL players.

Hodge didn’t extend himself, venturing onto the track via a tunnel rather than the lengthy concrete stairs used by the rest of the team and returning indoors as the team continued more intensive drills.

Gunston wasn’t expected to appear after football boss Chris Fagan declared Tuesday and yesterday rest days for the recovering star before a fitness test today.

Meanwhile star midfielder Sam Mitchell said the team knows that Grand Finals are a unique beast, with a focus on “cleaning up” the inevitable nervous mistakes and maintaining its style that he said was tailored for finals.

“We try and play a brand of footy during the season that is sustainable in finals,” he said.

“We know that finals footy is made up of really key moments, and part of what we’re trying to do as a footy club is not have any heavy reliance on single acts, single players or single people.

“In every Grand Final there’s going to be lots of mistakes. There’s going to be lots of good things that happen, lots of goals kicked, but there’ll be a lot of mistakes.

“Part of what we want to do is be the team that cleans those mistakes up and I think our maturity of our group and even the enthusiasm and the youth — when you bring those things together, we’re well-placed.”

media_camera Luke Hodge made a brief appearance at training on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

A warm day with a top of 28C is forecast, and Mitchell said the team now had four years of preparation for such conditions under its belt.

“I’m glad it’s going to be warm. For the last four years, Andrew Russell our fitness coach has had us once or twice a week from about Round 18 onwards in the steam room preparing for a hot finals day,” he said.

“The last three Grand Finals have been cold, so we’ve been getting into him saying ‘this is a waste of time, we’ve been doing this for three years’. He’s finally going to have the last say — four years of preparation is finally going to pay off on Saturday.”

The Hawks have been forced to overcome their fair share of hurdles this year, including the death of assistant coach Brett Ratten’s teenage son Cooper and a cancer scare for forward Jarryd Roughead, plus the football community dealing with the death of Adelaide Phil Walsh.

All are hardships Mitchell said have rallied the group.

“Having a little bit of that in your system and giving you a little bit of perspective is probably not a bad thing going into a finals campaign,” he said.