Australia are confident key batter Phoebe Litchfield will be fit for their opening match against South Africa at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.
Litchfield has been a notable absentee for the six-time T20 World Cup champions during their recent warm-up fixtures for this event in England and Wales and Australia coach Shelley Nitschke confirmed the left-hander has been battling a quad issue.
The Aussies now have two days off ahead of their tournament opener against the Proteas in Manchester on Saturday and Nitschke believes Litchfield will be fit to feature in that crucial encounter.
"Yeah, we hope so," Nitschke said when asked whether Litchfield would be fit for the Aussies' opening match at the T20 World Cup.
"Obviously she had some quad awareness and it was just on the conservative side to leave her out of these two games.
"But we're hopeful that she's going to be able to take her place in the side for the first round (match)."
Litchfield was watching on from the sidelines as the Aussies completed a clinical six-wicket victory over the West Indies in their final warm-up fixture in Cardiff on Wednesday, with opener Georgia Voll doing the majority of the damage with the bat with a quickfire 77.
Voll was well supported by fellow opener Beth Mooney (34), while seven different Australian bowlers collected a wicket leaving Nitschke with some selection headaches heading into that opening clash with the Proteas.
Nitschke confirmed she was close to finalising Australia's XI for that match against South Africa, but will wait until the side arrive in Manchester on Friday before she locks it in.
"I think we're pretty close," Nitschke said.
"I think once we get up to Manchester and have a bit closer look at those conditions, that we'll start to really feel like what that looks like for game one."
The West Indies will be sweating on the fitness of Chinelle Henry ahead of their tournament opener with New Zealand on Saturday after the experienced allrounder left the field after landing awkwardly when attempting a catch in the outfield against Australia.
West Indies skipper Hayley Matthews has her fingers crossed Henry will be fit for that clash and knows her side has to play more consistent cricket if they are topple the White Ferns in Southampton.
"We have a lot of positives to take out of it (the warm-up fixtures) still, but we're still going to have to play some better cricket and be sharper when the World Cup comes around," Matthews said.
"Hopefully we can do that when the real matches come about."