San Antonio Spurs big man LaMarcus Aldridge has his return date to action from a thumb injury now up in the air, per head coach Gregg Popovich, who confirmed as much prior to tip-off Wednesday against the Utah Jazz.

“When he plays, he plays,” Popovich succinctly made known Wednesday per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News, leaving an exact date that he can be expected to get back into action particularly ambiguous.

With his absence Wednesday, Aldridge has now missed each of the team’s past two contests, paving the way for Jakob Poeltl to see an increased role in the frontcourt. How the team furthers adjusts its rotations can be gleaned when they take the court Wednesday against a stout Jazz defensive unit.

After being named an All-Star each of the past two years, Aldridge has seen his numbers take a slight dip during his age-34 campaign. At 19.1 points and 7.5 rebounds on a nightly basis, he is on pace for his lowest mark in those categories since the 2016-17 year, his only other non-All-Star campaign since 2010-11.

San Antonio has struggled to keep its head above the .500 mark this year, entering play Wednesday with a 20-26 record, which has placed them 2.5 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.

Each game will take on an increased magnitude down the stretch as the Spurs attempt to also thwart off the Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers in hopes of avoiding a postseason on the sidelines for the first time since 1996-97.

When they’ll next have Aldridge in the mix to aid in that endeavor is still unclear.