Quade Cooper will have to overcome a game-day fitness Test in order to line up for the Wallabies in their Spring Tour showdown with France.
The talented playmaker has sat out training since Tuesday, when he picked up an ankle injury, and was again on the sidelines at the team's captain's run on Friday after taking part in a light warm-up.
It is understood Cooper will undergo a fitness test on the morning of the match, and will be given right up until the team is named shortly before kickoff on Saturday night (0700 Sunday AEDT).
In Cooper's absence, regular No.10 Bernard Foley - who has been named on the bench - took the reins in the captain's run and looms as the likely option should Cooper be a late scratching, while the uncapped and unnamed Jono Lance was also involved.
Foley has shouldered an enormous workload since the start of last year's World Cup, having played club rugby in Japan before the Super Rugby season.
Foley's also one of six Wallabies to have featured in all 12 Tests this season, with the other five all either named on the bench or not at all as coach Michael Cheika attempts to give them a break near the end of a long season.
Lance has been flown in from Australia this week essentially to take part in next Thursday's developmental Wallabies side against a French Barbarians outfit in Bordeaux - but would be available to Cheika should he be required to play on Saturday.
Cheika remained upbeat about the likelihood of Cooper overcoming the ankle complaint.
"We want to get the swelling down a bit but he'll be fine," Cheika said on Friday.
"We're playing Test match number (13) this year ... no one is in shape, everyone is playing with some injury.
"It's about toughening it out and going out there and doing it.
"Foley for example, played in the World Cup, played in Japan, played Super Rugby and now he's here.
"You have to play injured, that's the way it is. I'm sure in the French team it's the same.
"I also want Quade to have another chance at No.10 and have a look at him there."
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