The Blues are preparing to be without key striker weapon Rieko Ioane for the foreseeable future, after the All Blacks midfielder took a nasty knock during Friday's win over Melbourne Rebels.
Moments before halftime, Ioane was struck directly in the head by the hip of Rebels flanker Josh Kemeny, as he attempted a tackle, and was sent prone to the turf in a daze.
He was able to sit up as he received urgent medical attention, but had his head tilted to the side, remaining on the field for several minutes, after the teams left for the break. He was eventually helped into the sheds and played no further part in the contest.
Blues head coach Vern Cotter has placated any concerns Ioane suffered a major injury, but expects him to be sidelined for at least next weekend's top-of-the-table clash with the Hurricanes.
"[Ioane] has taken quite a heavy knock," said Cotter. "I reassure everybody that he's fine, but there'll be precautions around when he takes the field again.
"He won't be playing next week."
The injury added a slightly sour note to a gritty victory for the Blues, who were made to work hard for their money against an improved Rebels outfit.
Wounded by their heavy loss to the Crusaders last weekend, the embattled hosts trailed by just a point at the interval, before the Blues responded with four unanswered tries in the second stanza to shut the gate.
Despite the scoreline, Cotter concedes the Blues were the inferior side through the opening half, but credits his team for their composure for overcoming a yellow card to Harry Plummer and settling into a forwards-based approach late that the Rebels had no answer to.
"It was a tough game," Cotter admitted. "The first half was a good arm wrestle and we were going backwards.
"We were in trouble and probably lucky to be in front at halftime. Second half, I thought we had better intentions around the game.
"We came back and the yellow card was a critical moment. I think if they had scored, then perhaps we would have found ourselves under pressure and there may have only been six points in it, which would have led to a pretty exciting finish.
"I just felt that our guys stayed in, got through the yellow card, did really well during that period and then just had probably a bit more in the tank at the end of the game."
The result completes a clean sweep of the Australian sides for the Blues, who find themselves just a point adrift of the competition-leading Hurricanes, who'll visit Eden Park next weekend in what promises to be one of the games of the season.
Cotter is confident his squad are well poised to begin their push to the post-season, which includes derbies against all four of their NZ rivals - three of which are home fixtures.
"We knew these two games against the Reds and then against the Rebels were important," he noted. "It's midway during the second part of our season.
"It's nice to be able to come away with two wins and today to get the bonus point. We now go home to a very hard four games against Kiwi teams.
"It was just making sure that we're trying to get better and work on certain things. Being on the road and a six-day turnaround, we didn't start well, but we managed to pull the game back.
"Next week, we play against the Hurricanes at home and we're looking forward to getting back. That's the last of our travels, hopefully."
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