Injured midfielder Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is on the cusp of a return to the field for the Blues.
The All Blacks back hasn't featured for the Blues since their defeat to the Crusaders at Eden Park on March 18, when he suffered a hand injury.
Blues coach Leon MacDonald has admitted the former NRL superstar could have - at a push - played against the Waratahs on Saturday, but the staff understandably chose to err on the side of caution and afford him another week to put his recovery through its paces.
"If we really wanted to push the boat out we could probably have squeezed him in this week," MacDonald admitted after Thursday's training session.
"But he hadn't done any contact on it and wasn't able to do it today.
"We just felt it was better to give him a full week of training, get some good contact into his hand and make sure he'd feeling like he's not feeling it…we don't want him running out there double guessing himself.
"He's pretty confident at the moment the way that's tracking."
That means Tuivasa-Sheck would be poised for a comeback the following week against the Fijian Drua in Lautoka.
There are no such doubts surrounding Akira Ioane. The All Blacks loose forward injured his knee in the opening 30 minutes of the Blues' campaign and spent the last two months rehabilitating his medial ligament issue.
Ioane will make his return off the Blues' bench at Eden Park this weekend, when MacDonald expects to see the frustrations of his lengthy layoff taken out on the pitch.
"He's really hungry," he said of Ioane. "It's been a long time since he was able to play and he didn't get to play for very long.
"We've seen a fire in the way that he's rehabbed, a determination, and he's in great nick and training really well."
With the home stretch ahead, MacDonald identifies the immediate weeks as critical to their hopes of securing a home quarter-final. The Blues currently sit in fifth place, just two points behind the Crusaders in the all-important top four.
Amid a rollercoaster 2023 campaign, the Blues are surprisingly yet to string together consecutive wins, with the Waratahs offering a prime opportunity to end that trend on the back of their win over the rebels in Melbourne.
The New South Welshmen have won just one of their past five games and sit outside the playoffs spots in ninth.
"I think the performance against the Rebels showed us a lot of parts of our game that are all starting to click together nicely. That's really what we're focusing on.,
"We desperately want to start the second half with a good performance against the Waratahs. We know they're tough and they've got a point to prove as well."
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