Phil Waugh will play through the pain barrier © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Tony Brown | Nick Cummins | Phil Waugh | Sam Wykes

Tournaments/Tours: Super Rugby

Teams: Force | Highlanders | New South Wales Waratahs

Waratahs flanker Phil Waugh could make a miraculous recovery from a bicep injury in time to face the Crusaders on Friday.

The ligament damage suffered in the Waratahs' victory over the Reds in round two was expected to require surgery which could have kept Waugh out for up to three months.

But further scans have revealed that an operation is not necessary and that the problem will not worsen, so Waugh is planning on playing through the pain barrier while working on strengthening the area as the season progresses.

"It's actually better than I thought, I pulled up this morning with not much pain and the strength is really good so we're just progressing with training tomorrow and hopefully I'll be right for Friday night," Waugh said.

"I had the MRI and saw the specialist and at this stage we're going to go with the conservative approach and train tomorrow and hopefully it pulls up okay after that.

"There's significant damage to the tendon so the prognosis is as expected but the treatment's probably just a little bit different to what we first thought."

In other injury news, veteran fly-half Tony Brown has been drafted into the depleted Highlanders squad. He will join the team in South Africa on Tuesday ahead of their clash with the Bulls.

The 36-year-old former All Blacks playmaker, who has 83 caps for the Highlanders, has been playing in Japan since 2004. He was called into the New Zealand conference's early pace-setters after Lima Sopoaga suffered a shoulder injury, joining regular No.10 Colin Slade (broken jaw) on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, Western Force have been boosted by the re-signings of winger Nick Cummins and lock Sam Wykes for a further two seasons.