Burger King NZ Breakers centre Rick Rickert is on the mend and is a likely contributor to Thursday night’s crucial final home game of the regular National Basketball League season against the Blaze.

The American import took no part in last week’s thumping of the Hawks, despite warming up and taking his place on the Breakers' bench with Andrej Lemanis erring on the side of caution, a decision that proved the right one given the performance of his team in dismantling the Hawks so comprehensively.

The extra week looks like working wonders with Rickert moving more freely at practice on Monday.

“He has taken part in most of practice today and looks to be making good progress. While he is not yet 100% we will monitor him carefully this week with a view to getting some court time on Thursday night,” said Lemanis.

Rickert himself was pleased to be practicing after a week on the sidelines.

“I feel much better, the improvement in the past few days has been great, I feel real confident about Thursday night but I still have some treatment and some progress to make before I can be totally satisfied.”

Tom Abercrombie meanwhile has also benefited from another week back in practice with his ankle injury now close to 100% recovered and his general fitness also improved. While showing signs he was back to his best in the win over the Hawks, Abercrombie will be further boosted by a full week of training and will be putting his hand up for more court time against the Blaze.

The Breakers will not lack for motivation, the game is a must win against another play off rival in the Gold Coast Blaze and will be the final regular season home game in the career of Tony Ronaldson, the former Boomer announcing his retirement two weeks back, effective at the end of this season.