"He's [Wheeler] showing the same old symptoms again so we've just decided to pull him from this game to make sure he has some pre-hab and rehab going to see if those symptoms will ease away," says Malan.
The William Young-captained CD are fifth on the six-team first-class table (28pts) after five rounds which had an intermission before Christmas to enable the white-ball formats to be played.
Ironically the Aucklanders are perched just above them on 41 points but the telling factor is the gulf in points - a difference of 13 points but one victory will yield 12 for just winning.
The number of drawn matches, as a result of inclement weather, is a testament to Northern Districts Knights leading on 52 points with just two wins. CD are winless while the hosts have registered one victory.
"We haven't played the best red-ball cricket, to be fair, but we've got a big challenge in the next few games to make sure we try to [collect] some points."
From Malan's perspective it goes without saying that life would have been a little easier had Young and his men registered a couple of wins.
"Those are the cards we currently have so we just have to make sure we work with that."
He expects the wicket at Colin Maiden Park to be low and slow, thus providing batsmen a good opportunity to occupy the crease for handsome totals.
No doubt, claiming 20 wickets will be equally imperative in claiming outright victory with left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel on a five-wicket-bag habit.
"Ajaz is going to be playing a big part and he picked up 25 wickets from four games ... so we just have to make sure we get other bowlers to help us out."
