Queensland Reds captain James Horwill and star inside back Berrick Barnes are moving closer to a full recovery as the Super 14 season fast approaches.
Horwill has passed a vital stage of his recovery from a broken foot with the removal of orthopaedic screws that have helped mend the injury.
However, the Wallaby lock still faces significant time on the sidelines to allow the foot to fully heal in order to prevent re-injury and to properly support his 117kg frame during high-impact line-out duties.
"That is one of the reasons they left the screws in a bit longer than usual," he said.
"I'm still aiming for (a return) sometime in March but we definitely want to make sure the foot is right because these injuries can take a while to heal properly."
"It feels really good at the moment but we'll have to wait and see."
The Reds' opening Super 14 encounter is scheduled for February 14 against the Bulls in Pretoria and while Horwill will certainly miss, the Reds are hoping that Barnes will be right to go after a posterior cruciate ligament injury in his knee forced him out of the Wallaby tour of Europe.
"The medical opinion at the moment is that his rehab is on track," coach Phil Mooney said at training camp at Casuarina Beach in northern New South Wales.
"He's run fairly well here at training, so the indications are that he will probably be right for the last trial (on February 5)."
Barnes says some of the new faces in the 2009 Reds squad have brought real speed to match the likes of Wallaby wings Peter Hynes and Digby Ioane and he's itching for the opportunity to help unleash them.
"We've got a couple of young speedsters out wide, that's going to be exciting," Barnes said.
"The fullback spot is obviously going to be hotly contested, you've got (former Canberra Raiders fullback) Mark McLinden, Rodney Davies, who's just come from league and he has got some jet shoes, and Aidan Toua (from the QAS Reds Academy)."
"We definitely have some speed out wide, but it's up to us in the key positions to get the ball out to them."
While the Reds squad of 2009 is relatively young, Barnes argues they're not all raw rookies.
"Guys in key positions have played a couple of years now, so it's key for us to take those leadership roles and really do something with it."