COVID-19 has continued to plague sports teams around the world and the Blues are bracing for it as well, as coach Leon MacDonald admits he fully expects players to catch the virus at some point during the upcoming Super Rugby Pacific season.
Just a month out from their opener against Moana Pasifika, the side's already taking an ultra-cautious approach.
"We're expecting it to get into the team at some point and we have to make sure we deal with it the best we can," says MacDonald.
A stark admission from the Blues coach, who's followed the impacts of the Omicron variant on other sports teams closely.
MacDonald has warned the bulk of his squad to be ready for it to hit them at some stage during their team's title defence.
"When it gets into teams it rips your team to pieces," he says. "We're going to have guys at home at some point this year and the depth of our squad is gonna get tested."
For now, flanker Tom Robinson - in trademark fashion - is happy to see the lighter side of the issue.
"I've probably got worse diseases than COVID," Robinson jokes.
On a more serious note, Robinson believes his team are well prepared for anything that may come their way this season, after enduring two years of disruption.
"We've been into lockdown, we've learned we can train on our own and we've learned, when we do get that break, often we come back in better condition anyway," he notes.
MacDonald agrees and insists he's undeterred by the lack of recent game time for several key players due to last year's Auckland lockdown.
"Normally at this time of year they're sort of going 'Man, am I ready to get into it', but these guys haven't had a lot of rugby and they're really excited to don the boots," says MacDonald.
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