A week on from seeing their season-opening fixture postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak in their squad, Central Pulse is ready to get back on the court in the ANZ Premiership.
Last week, it was confirmed that the Pulse would be unable to field a team to face Northern Stars in Auckland, as a result of the high number of COVID cases in their squad.
In line with the ANZ Premiership's COVID policy, matches can be postponed if four or more players test positive for the virus.
And now preparing to finally hit the court and begin their campaign, the Pulse has been rocked again by the news that coach Yvette McCausland-Durie has tested positive for COVID-19.
That leaves ex-Silver Ferns coach and current Pulse director of high-performance Waimarama Taumaunu taking charge of the team this week, as her side prepare to face Northern Mystics and Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic on consecetive days in a weekend doubleheader.
But even without McCausland-Durie with the team in person, Taumaunu still expects her coach to have an impact on the Pulse's week.
"She's isolating at home now," Taumaunu says of McCausland-Durie. "She's symptom-free, but we're testing each day because [we're] verging on the side of being very careful - especially around our players.
"She was positive at 10 o'clock, there were no symptoms, but she's now isolating.
"She will be, I assume by what's happened this morning, on the phone to me constantly. She'll be a very strong presence, even if she's not there in person this weekend."
Taumaunu adds she doesn't expect as big of a COVID disruption this week, due to the virus having already swept through the Pulse in pre-season.
But even though she's confident of the fitness of her squad, checks will still be in place for the squad before they take the court this weekend.
"At this stage yes, but there's a test on Friday so we're not actually going to be absolutely sure, although our numbers of those who haven't had the virus in the last month are quite small now.
"Plan as much as you possibly can, but you need a group that's resilient, flexible and happy to get on with it.
"That's essentially what we've tried to do. It may not be pretty, we kind of recognise that.
"But we're going to do the best we can with what we have at the time, and that's what we've been doing through pre-season."
