A week out from playing their first pre-season game and there appear to be no major injury worries for the Highlanders, though centre Brett Mather is battling a niggling ankle problem.
Mather suffered the injury in last year's Air New Zealand Cup and it was hoped it would clear up with rest over the past couple of months.
But Highlanders coach Glenn Moore said the ankle was still troubling Mather and he was to see a specialist about the injury yesterday.
A decision on Mather's treatment would be known some time next week.
Other injury worries, outside backs Fetu'u Vainikolo and Ben Smith, are showing progress.
Moore said Smith is ahead of where he was expected to be, coming back from a foot injury which led to an operation late last year, while Vainikolo is recovering from a hamstring tear.
The two may be available for the pre-season match against the Crusaders in Timaru on January 30.
Thomson played with the thumb injury, involving damaged ligaments, throughout last season and it was decided to get an operation on it.
He should not miss any scheduled matches.
The Highlanders play their first pre-season match against the Chiefs in Rotorua next Friday night.
Moore said his side was ready to play some rugby.
"You get to a stage when you've done a lot of training and you want to get into a game situation," Moore said.
The side trained three weeks before Christmas and went back into training on January 5.
Moore said it was well ahead of last year in terms of training and preparation and the squad had come together well.
"The guys came into camp in good shape and after the Christmas break have shown some good times."
All Black halfback Jimmy Cowan trained with the squad a couple of times this week, while All Black prop Jamie Mackintosh has been training with the squad at various times over the last couple of weeks.
But they, along with Thomson, would not play the match against the Chiefs.
The exact format of the match against the Chiefs had yet to be finalised, including whether the match would be played in quarters or halves, or whether all members of the squad would get a run.
Moore said not much should be read into the naming of his team to play the Chiefs, as he was just looking to see how players performed under pressure and in a game situation.
Players from the wider training squad are likely to be named in the team.
The Highlanders have one more pre-season game, against the Blues in Auckland on February 5, before kicking off the Super 14 competition against the Brumbies at Carisbrook on February 13.
