Dragons captain Shane Heal says his back is feeling "pretty good" ahead of the club's historic home opener to be played this Saturday at Vodafone Arena against the Wollongong Hawks.

Heal, who has missed the club's two opening road games, is hopeful of a return to the Dragons' line-up this weekend.

"The improvement I've got today from last Friday is pretty good," Heal told the Herald Sun's Grantley Bernard.

"That's the only time it has improved. For the 10 days before that I had no improvement. It was frustrating."

Heal had his first full session for over a fortnight yesterday, and will shoot around today with teammates.

"It was good to get out there today. I was really stiff and felt ordinary at the start, like I was running with a pole up my butt. It's still jammed, but as time went on I loosened up a bit and I could at least run and move and shoot. Hopefully each day it gets better and better."