The Wallabies have dangled a Test debut painfully close to Speight's nose, adding him to a 32-man squad on Thursday for the clash against New Zealand on October 18.

However, he has already been ruled out of selection contention because of injury and his stint in camp is designed at helping Speight familiarise himself with the Test environment.

Speight is back in full training with Canberra after overcoming a hamstring injury. But the Wallabies will wait until the spring tour of Europe before handing Speight his test debut.

Speight is set to play for the Vikings against Brisbane City in the National Rugby Championship match, which doubles as a curtain-raiser for the Wallabies-All Blacks Test.

"While Henry has made great progress, we've already had one false start with his injury this year, so we'll continue to take a conservative approach until he is 100 per cent ready to go," Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie said.

Enigmatic Queensland Reds playmaker Quade Cooper has been recalled to replace Kurtley Beale while Christian Lealiifano is set to play his first Test of the year in replacing Brumbies teammate Matt Toomua at inside centre.

Toomua suffered concussions in the Wallabies' Tests against South Africa and Argentina in the past two weeks, opening the door for Lealiifano to end his international hiatus.

Speight has been on the Wallabies' radar since the International Rugby Board cleared his Australian eligibility on September 11.

However, he tore his hamstring in the Super Rugby semi-final and then re-injured it attempting to make a comeback for the Vikings a month ago.

Cooper is set to make his return to Test rugby from the bench after overcoming a shoulder injury, making him the ideal man to fill the gap left by Beale.

Following back-to-back losses to South Africa and Argentina to sink their Rugby Championship campaign, McKenzie may be looking at the dead rubber against the All Blacks as a last chance for some of his underperforming stars.

Speight is one of four uncapped members in the squad, alongside Western Force tighthead prop Tetera Faulkner and centre Kyle Godwin, and Melbourne Rebels winger Tom English.

McKenzie virtually ruled out the prospect of Cooper starting but said he was happy with his progress.

"Quade's played a handful of games now and he played well on the weekend," he said.

"We haven't looked at him in our environment. [Starting] might be a stretch, I don't know. I'll form an opinion when I see him and see how he looks. He hasn't been in the environment for the last nine months, 10 months."

Players who have not been considered for selection because of  injury include hookers Stephen Moore (knee), Tatafu Polota-Nau (ankle), Nathan Charles (pectoral), Tolu Latu (arm) and Heath Tessman (ankle); prop Scott Sio (ankle); back-rowers Wycliff Palu (head), David Pocock (knee), Ben McCalman (shoulder) and Dave Dennis (knee); centre Matt Toomua (head); and outside backs Peter Betham (ankle) and Chris Feauai-Sautia (shoulder).