If Hawke's Bay Magpies captain Brendon O'Connor's confidence levels are an indication, expect him to start in Saturday's Ranfurly Shield defence in Napier.
"I'm as confident as I can be ... I've passed all the tests," openside flanker O'Connor said on Monday as he pondered his team's second defence of the season against Bay of Plenty.
O'Connor was knocked out in the 44th minute of Sunday's first defence against Otago at McLean Park when attempting to tackle Razorbacks flanker TJ Ioane. Magpies head coach Craig Philpott is adopting a more cautious approach than O'Connor.
"If Brendon gets any headaches at any stage during this week's New Zealand Rugby Union's Return to Training Protocols programme the whole process starts again," Philpott warned.
Philpott pointed out O'Connor was fine after completing a couple of laps of the field at training yesterday after doing nothing on Monday. While today is a scheduled day off for the Magpies, O'Connor will undergo further tests in an attempt to meet the criteria.