Richie McCaw says his recovery from a broken foot is on track.
The All Blacks captain was a spectator at Saturday's pre-season hit-out against the Hurricanes at Mangatainoka, which the Crusaders won 19-8, and confirmed he had started running again, just over two months after surgery to remove the screw in his right foot that plagued him so much during New Zealand's World Cup success.
"It's feeling pretty good. I think it's all on track to be where it should be," he said. "Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm into training properly."
McCaw is wary of putting an exact timeline on his return to Super Rugby but doesn't expect to be playing competitively until at least round seven of the competition – a showdown with the Bulls in Pretoria.
"I don't really want to put a time on it because I've got to get through the next couple of weeks," he said. "I want to get back to being able to run properly, then back into team training.
"Once you can do that you can be a bit more certain about when to play. It certainly won't be before the start of April I wouldn't have thought."
After the high of last year's World Cup win and the parades, accolades and awards that have followed since that night at Eden Park on October 23 it would be understandable if returning to the grind of another season was less than tempting for McCaw.
But he admitted the desire to perform was still there.
"I'm quite looking forward to it. You've got to reassess and you've got to put last year behind you," he explained.
"Watching a couple of games like this week (against the Hurricanes) and last week (against the Highlanders) you get that itch to get back out there.
"You've got to work out what gets you up and what makes you want to go and train – and for me that's seeing the Crusaders perform well.
"The last thing I want to do is meander through and not contribute. That's why I'm getting excited about this year.
"Once the All Blacks come around I've got to make sure I earn my spot back there again. There will be challenges there of making sure we don't let those standards drop too."