The Chiefs will likely be without the services of co-captain Sam Cane for their quarter-final clash with the Waratahs at Hamilton on Saturday.
The All Blacks flanker didn't travel to Lautoka for last weekend's match with Fijian Drua, remaining in New Zealand to rehab his sprained MCL (knee) suffered against the Force the week before.
On Monday, assistant coach David Hill refrained from ruling Cane out completely, but suggested - with a possible semi-final clash with the Crusaders looming - they would resist taking any chances with their linchpin forward.
"If it's a must-win and push came to shove, then he's the type of guy who would [play]," Hill said. "But obviously, we're dealing with someone's limbs, so we're pretty cautious around things and making good decisions.
"We've done it with all our guys returning to play. We've never forced them or rushed them back in, so we'll have those discussions today and tomorrow.
"It's probably everything put in the mix there, and [we'll] make a good decision in the best interests of the team and the player."
Cane only participated in the start of Monday's training and his status will be reassessed at Thursday's session, Hill added.
Should Cane be ruled out, Luke Jacobson, who started at No.7 in Fiji, would likely reprise that role, with Kaylum Boshier another candidate.
In other injury news, All Blacks lock Josh Lord is also unavailable, due to the knee injury that has seen him miss the past two games, along with fullback Kaleb Trask, who failed an HIA early in the match against the Drua.
Josh Ioane is the leading contender to replace Trask in the run-on XV, after playing most of the match at fullback last weekend.
Join us at 4:35pm Saturday for live updates of the Chiefs v Waratahs Super Rugby Pacific playoff
