Latrell Mitchell, Cam Murray and Jamie Humphreys are among a staggering list of 12 injured first-graders missing Saturday night's clash with the Sharks in Gosford.
It's left coach Wayne Bennett to hand Ashton Gray his NRL debut and name Lewis Dodd in the halves after mostly overlooking the English recruit this year.
Cronulla have had their share of injuries in 2025, with Sione Katoa, KL Iro, Tom Hazelton and Rudolf himself all restricted to fewer than 10 games so far.
Rudolf also thinks back to 2022, when the Sharks used 29 players - as many as injury-riddled Souths will have played this year when Ward makes his debut.
It's why Rudolf finds it hard to feel for the Rabbitohs.
"Not at all, not one bit," he told AAP.
"They're going through it, don't get me wrong, but everyone has their turn. We had our turn a few years ago.
"It's unfortunate, but you can't go into a game with any ounce of sympathy."
Rudolf said he would check in with his mates at Souths after fulltime.
"But when you cross the white line and the whistle blows, it's game time and there's no room for niceties," he said.
Hot-and-cold Cronulla appear to be hitting form at the right time, having knocked off fellow top-eight hopefuls the Dolphins and Sydney Roosters in consecutive weeks.
Rudolf warned the Sharks against getting ahead of themselves as they aim for only their second three-game winning streak of the season.
"It's proven by history with us that as soon as we win two games, we start thinking we're going all right, that's when we start getting complacent," he said.
"I really hope we've learnt our lesson now across not only this year but the previous three years. You can't just win a couple of games and hope you're going to be home free.
"We're going to put everything we can into this week and every week leading up to the finals series."
The Sharks have lost Briton Nikora to a head knock for the game but have centre Jesse Ramien back from a hamstring injury.
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