The 26-year-old NSW speedster is in Brisbane this week as he ramps up his comeback a month after the nasty left leg injury which required an operation and 30 stitches following a collision with a piece of metal training equipment.

Cricket Australia has mapped out a rehabilitation program for Starc that would have him ready to take his place at the WACA Ground against South Africa on November 3, although he will need to prove his fitness and form in the Blues' Sheffield Shield season opener against Queensland starting on October 25.

Starc would be eagerly welcomed back into the Test fold with Victorian quick James Pattinson still recovering from a back injury.

"Mitch has commenced running and bowling this week and is coping well," Cricket Australia support team physiotherapist Kevin Sims said.

"We hope to have him available for the first Test should his recovery continue as planned."

In a perfect world Starc would line up alongside NSW colleague Josh Hazlewood in that first Test, with the latter set to play his first Matador Cup game of the season against Queensland on Friday.

Hazlewood was left at home for Australia's recent one-day tour of South Africa, which the Proteas won 5-0, a 31-run loss on Wednesday the final nail in that coffin.

Given he was being rested, Hazlewood wasn't permitted to play for the Blues in their Matador Cup campaign until the series in South Africa concluded.

His precision bowling was missed in South Africa, and Hazlewood is determined to get Australia's Test summer off to the ideal start in Perth next month.

"In your rest period you probably train harder than what you would normally with getting that strength back in and that fitness and getting the bowling workloads up. I'm feeling very fit, ready to go," Hazlewood said.

"We take a lot of confidence in, we always play some pretty good Test cricket at home. We've got a pretty good record at home and especially in Perth.

"South Africa are always tough to play in any format and in any part of the world. It's going to be some good tough cricket but we'll be quietly confident heading into it."

Australia plays a trio of Tests against South Africa this summer before a three-match series with Pakistan, the world's second-ranked Test nation.

But Hazlewood's focus this weekend is on the Matador Cup, where NSW must beat undefeated Queensland at Drummoyne Oval on Friday and high-flying Victoria at North Sydney Oval on Sunday to keep alive their title defence.

Losses to Tasmania on Sunday and South Australia on Wednesday have left the Blues floundering second from bottom, but Hazlewood said there was still time to turn things around.

"It's a bit of a worry where we're situated at the moment," he said. "We've got a couple of big games coming up obviously over the weekend so if we can get back-to-back wins and get on a bit of a roll, it always helps moving into the finals.

"I didn't watch too much of the Tassie game but, all reports, we should've gone on and won that game but these things happen.

"I watched a fair bit of yesterday's game [against South Australia] and we're obviously at the same ground again tomorrow so we'll learn a lot from yesterday.

"Queensland are performing very well but they haven't played at Drummoyne yet so hopefully that goes in our favour."