Melbourne's Steven May leaves the ground with an injury during the preliminary final against Geelong on September 10, 2021. Picture: AFL Photos

STAR Melbourne defender Steven May says there is "no chance" he is missing the Demons' first Grand Final in 21 years with injury.

May grabbed at his right hamstring after losing a marking contest in the first quarter of Friday's preliminary final thrashing of Geelong, and he went straight down to the rooms to get his leg strapped.

The Therabody AFL All-Australian full-back returned to the field at the start of the second term, but was subbed out in the third quarter once the win was secure.

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May said on Saturday he had pulled up as "good as I had hoped".

"There's no chance I'm missing that," he said of the Grand Final on September 25.

"The fact that my strength and everything was there, and I was able to go back on, gave me a lot of confidence.

"I'm super confident in my body, I know my body pretty well now - I've been in really good shape this year," he said.

"The strength in my hamstrings and my own confidence in my body is at an all-time high."

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Demons coach Simon Goodwin was comfortable with the decision to allow May back on Optus Stadium in the second quarter.

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"Steve's got a bit of a tight hamstring. Clearly, he came back onto the ground for a period of time. We think it might be back-related, he could still move," Goodwin said post-match.

"We'll assess that over the next few days, but we're quietly confident that he'll be okay. It is back-related type of tightness in his hamstring, so we'll have to assess that and see what it looks like over the next few days.

"The game was still in the balance (when he returned). He's an important player to us, he felt like it was okay. They felt like it might have been back-related, so at that point of the game it was worth taking the risk.  

"He got a little tighter as the game went on, so we didn't want to take the risk and subbed him out of the game."

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May has been instrumental in Melbourne's charge to this year's finals series, earning his first All-Australian blazer after a stellar 2021 campaign working in tandem with Jake Lever.

He missed one game in round five due to a nasty fractured eye socket, before he was a late withdrawal in round 22 because of soreness.