And the wait is almost over.

Ingles this week applied to suit up for the Sandringham Sabres in Saturday night’s clash with the Dandenong Rangers in Round 7 of BigV competition.

The 19-year-old NBL Rookie of the Year is expected to make his much-anticipated return to the local basketball scene at Dandenong Stadium this weekend.

In suiting up for the Sabres, Ingles will join good friend and former Dragons teammate Adam Quick and Sandringham star Simon Conn in taking on the rampaging Rangers.

Ingles, who initially planned a complete break from competition throughout the off-season, will make a surprise appearance for the Sabres in an effort to refine his game and boost his fitness ahead of the first national camp in June.

“I was going to play for the Ballarat Miners in Matt (Shanahan’s) team but they didn’t want me to come and go, which I’ll be doing because of my commitments with the Boomers,” Ingles said.

“(The Miners) wanted me to play every game, which I wouldn’t have been able to do, and Sandringham said they would be happy for me to play when I could.

“(Adam) Quick plays for the Sabres and I decided to play as well to get a bit more fitness.”

Ingles will look to add occasional sessions with Sandringham to his already-extensive training schedule in a bid to achieve maximum fitness ahead of his first Boomers camp.

“I trained with Sandringham last night for the first time which was good, and I’ll keep training with them at least once a week depending on my schedule.

“Obviously the competition will be a bit easier than the NBL so I’ll be able to work on a few areas of my game and just get a bit more game fitness leading up to Boomers, which will be a bit different to just doing individual sessions every day.”

And while he has enjoyed the short break from on-court competition, Ingles has not lost his hunger to win.

Especially against his own teammates.

“It will be good to play against Hobba, we won’t go soft on each other or anything like that,” he said.

“Ash Cannan is in the team as well and they’re on the top of the ladder so they’re right up there and we really want to win.”