All Blacks: Thumbs up on McCaw's foot injury

Richie McCaw. Photo / Getty Images

Relax, the foot's fine.

Form? That's a different matter, but All Black captain Richie McCaw is becoming world-class at swatting aside speculation that all is not well with his troublesome foot.

A stress fracture ruled him out of the early rounds of the Super 15 and flared up again late. His return to the Crusaders for the semifinal and final coincided with two strangely off-the-pace performances, increasing anxiety that in World Cup year, the engine room of the World Cup campaign is not operating on all cylinders.

"It's all right, it feels pretty good," McCaw said of his body yesterday, as the All Blacks gathered in camp before assembling in Dunedin next week for the first test of the year.

While coaches and management must fit rest in for those who have endured taxing Super 15 campaigns - particularly those from the Blues and Crusaders - the priorities around McCaw over the next couple of months are simple: get him as much game time as possible.

"Every game you get under your belt you're going to be better for it," McCaw said. "Hopefully I'll get a run around next week and the week after.

"This week, with the travel, we haven't been able to do any of that extra work I'd like to be doing to get back into it, to keep topping up.

"Certainly from this week onwards I'll be able to do that and hopefully get better and better. You've just got to have confidence in that."

No thought was given to McCaw playing for Canterbury at Eden Park tomorrow, with the thinking that the Fiji test and Tri-Nations will be ample for getting him up to speed.

Assistant coach Wayne Smith said there would be a difficult balancing act between work and play in the lead-up to September's World Cup. He said players were attending the camp "in different states of disrepair".

Along with the obviously hamstrung Richard Kahui and Hosea Gear - which brought a curious analogy between that particular muscle injury and earthquakes - "they're unpredictable and they recur" - there are those who are just worn out.

Some players, like Keven Mealamu, have probably played more rugby at this stage of the year than they've ever done previously.

"You've heard [Boks' coach] Peter de Villiers' comments about his players being physical wrecks. There's no doubt that the landscape of Super rugby has changed," Smith said.

"It's longer, it's pretty tough physically, the players are carrying a lot of injuries and there's one team, the Crusaders, who have travelled around the world twice and played in the finals series.

"Everyone has individual plans. Everyone is going to manage it differently. Our players are in the squad.

"We want to win the Tri-Nations, the Bledisloe Cup and the Rugby World Cup. That's why we're keeping our players together and we'll manage them within the environment."

McCaw said that while players being shuffled in and out of match-day squads would not be everybody's ideal scenario, with big prizes on the line at the end of the year it made sense.

"The guys could probably carry on now, but to give them next week off, or some space somewhere, is going to pay dividends down the track.

"But no one thing is going to suit everyone.

"For me, I need to go and play and I'm excited about that. For others, if it means missing next week or coming off the bench, that might be the best thing."

Smith indicated nobody would be brought into the squad as cover for Kahui, with management convinced there was enough talent within those already chosen to cover for the utility as he undergoes what is hoped will be only a three-week recovery.