Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie has dispatched Will Skelton back to the NRC to prevent the giant young lock from ballooning way out of Test shape.

Skelton was the glaring omission from the Wallabies’ touring squad named on Wednesday for their final two matches of the Rugby Championship against South Africa and Argentina.

After also being overlooked for Australia’s past two Tests, not even making the bench, Skelton was poor in the Sydney Stars’ 47-18 loss to Greater Sydney Rams last Saturday.

And having played a total of just 81 minutes of Test rugby since his barnstorming man-of-the-match against France in June, McKenzie admits the 22-year-old is in serious need of more game time.

“He’s been on the fringe of the squad now for a little while so he’s not getting game time,” McKenzie said.

“He’s getting a little bit around the NRC but we think he’s better off if he plays some full matches.

“If you look at the way we’ve been playing, our players cover a lot of territory and then it’s physically challenging.”

Standing at 2.03 metres tall and playing at a fighting weight of 135kg makes playing for the Wallabies even more challenging for Skelton.

“We’ve been playing a pretty up-tempo style of rugby,” McKenzie said.

“There’s been a lot of ball-in-hand stuff but also there’s a lot of movement in the game.

“We’ve got a high opinion of him, but the reality is he’s also a young player and we looked at his contribution to the squad around the fringes of late, so we’ve made a decision that the best thing for him at the moment is to play.

“He can play three games in the next three weeks and get some decent football under his belt.”

McKenzie is hoping Skelton will come into his own on the Wallabies’ spring tour in November but, until then, the big unit must also carefully watch his diet to ensure he regains full fitness.

“He’s got a bigger challenge because he’s just a massive guy,” McKenzie said.

“He’s a young guy and he’s still growing and we have to keep working with him constantly.

“He’s just a huge guy so he has to learn to control his condition. His body’s growing whether he likes it or not.

“So we have to manage that because the game is aerobic; it needs skill, it needs power and it needs aerobic.”