Australia's No.1 Alex de Minaur has been left shrugging, along with the rest of Wimbledon, that he has no real idea whether injury-hit Nick Kyrgios will be fit to spearhead Australia's challenge at the grass-court grand slam.
"Your guess is as good as mine," shrugged de Minaur on Saturday, when asked whether had heard any news about the 2022 finalist's readiness to play against David Goffin on Monday after his continuing struggles with a knee injury.
"Obviously, he hasn't had the ideal preparation coming in, the body's not holding up. I think we're all hoping that he's been able to take some time off to be able to perform here - but I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Kyrgios, who's not broken his media silence over his knee trouble since pulling out of two warm-up events in Halle and Mallorca, had another hour-long training hit with fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in the morning, and appeared in good spirits on court 5.
He is due to address the media at the All England Club on Sunday morning where he's expected to confirm whether he'll be playing on No.1 Court the following day against the Belgian wild card Goffin in what would be only his second match in nine months after knee surgery.
But if he's not, the modest de Minaur, who'd never dream of calling himself the leader of the Aussie pack, is ready to be an inspirational lead for his colleagues, even if he's happy to be a "boring" spearhead compared to the livewire Canberra maverick.
"It feels great that all my fellow teammates, they can - I don't know if 'look up to' is the right word - but respect me and be able to ask for maybe advice or tips," said de Minaur, Australia's best hope as the 15th seed who reached the final at the key warm-up tournament at Queen's Club last week.
De Minaur has a home in Alicante, Spain, which, he says, all his Aussie colleagues on the circuit are invited to use as a temporary base - and many took him up on the offer when they were effectively stranded in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I don't want to call myself a leader at any point in time, I kind of like to go about my business quite quietly and almost, if anything, lead by example but it just shows that they value what I've been able to accomplish.
"It's just my type of personality. I’ve always been one to put my head down and work and try to work on myself always and get the most out of myself and I'm quite boring in that aspect.
"It's just the way I am. I go about my business, I try to get the most out of myself. Here we are in another Wimbledon and hopefully, all those Aussies can show the culture and heritage we've got on the grass courts.
"I think it's amazing the level all of the Aussies are showing and such a strong group of guys we've got in the top 100 and just looming up just outside, and we're really showing how strong of a nation we are."
There are eight Australian men in the main draw - and most of them were set to enjoy a get-together on Saturday night, hosted by Australia's Davis Cup captain and former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt, who was set to give them a pep talk.
Whether Kyrgios, who's not played Davis Cup for several years but still enjoys the company of his Australian mates, was going along too was unclear.
