Warriors centre Euan Aitken is itching to play in front of local fans in New Zealand with the NRL club set to find out next week if they will return home on June 21.
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The Warriors are due to play their first home game in two seasons at Mt Smart Stadium on July 2, which would be a first for Aitken who joined the club in the off-season.
The ex-St George Illawarra centre went straight into preseason training with the Warriors on the Central Coast but is yet to have a true home-ground experience with the club.
"I'm definitely looking forward to going to New Zealand, we're missing our home fans at Mt Smart Stadium and hopefully we can get back there to a packed stadium," he said on Friday ahead of his return from an ankle injury.
"There's really good facilities over there, we've got a makeshift sort of scenario here with demountables and things like that, so I'm looking forward to getting over into that professional environment in New Zealand with first-class facilities."
Concerns were raised recently the Warriors may need to spend the rest of the NRL season in Australia following two cases of community transmission of COVID-19 in Sydney.
It temporarily forced restrictions on travellers to New Zealand from NSW, but highlighted the delicate nature of free travel between the countries.
The NRL and the Warriors want to be confident there is minimal risk of being forced into a two-week isolation if there's another outbreak, which would force the competition and scheduling into chaos.
The Warriors players have family with them in camp this season, with all of their children enrolled in local schools.
A longer stay in Australia could see the children through the school year in an already disrupted environment, but a return to Auckland would be a huge financial boost for the club.
"It's a hard one and a lot of it is out of our hands and we'd love to play in front of our home crowd in Auckland. They'll probably do what's best for the competition," said senior player Tohu Harris.
"At the moment as far as we know the date is still June 21 but the club is still in talks with the NRL and hopefully we hear back from them in the next week or two.
"But we just need to focus on what we can control and that's playing footy."
Australian Associated Press
