Milner-skudder eyes a June return
One small step on the treadmill. One giant leap for Nehe Milnerskudder.
The Hurricanes and All Blacks excitement machine passed an important milestone in his elongated return from a broken right foot when jogging on a treadmill on Monday, and remains hopeful of returning for the June 9 Super Rugby game against the Chiefs, if not sooner.
That would keep his dream alive of facing the British and Irish Lions, either for New Zealand Maori on June 17, the three-test series starting a week later or for the Hurricanes on June 27.
But, for now, the eight-test All Blacks outside back is just happy to be moon boot free and running again, nearly two months after he suffered the cracked metatarsal bones on March 10.
‘‘I’m making progress. It obviously took a little bit longer than we expected. The first couple of weeks went so well just coming off the crutches but the three to six week mark it took a while to knit back together,’’ he said.
‘‘I got it re-x-rayed and there was a little bit of calcification of the bone but not as much as we expected. I got back on the treadmill yesterday, another step in the right direction.
‘‘It’s a bit of relief and a lot of satisfaction changing it up from being on the rower and the grinder. It’s heading in the right direction, getting back on my feet and getting the legs ticking over.’’
One thing Milner-skudder’s learned is not to gaze too hard into the crystal ball and make bold predictions, as he did in March with a six-week recovery time. He’s taking this one week by week, and step two is to graduate from the treadmill to a gallop on the grass with his team-mates at Hurricanes HQ.
The 26-year-old’s most recent test remains the World Cup final win over Australia in October 2015, before a dislocated left shoulder playing for the Hurricanes saw him miss nearly all the 2016 season.
‘‘It [foot injury] is not end of the year or anything like that. I’ll work my way back and definitely hopeful of featuring in that June window. I’m unsure who it’ll be for, but surely I’ll be back playing some footy by then,’’ Milnerskudder said.
‘‘I’m hoping just to get back out on the field with the Canes. The boys head off to Africa in three or four weeks [they play the Bulls in Pretoria on May 28], then they’re back against the Chiefs at home before the break. I could try to pencil that in as a bit of a goal.’’
In the meantime, training beckoned on Tuesday. Not with the Hurricanes, but with Titahi Bay Intermediate’s girls’ and boys’ sevens teams preparing for the Aims Games in Tauranga in September.
Milner-skudder was the star attraction of the Games’ official launch, with the 14th edition set to draw more than 10,000 intermediate age children from around the country in 21 sporting codes.
Moving freely on his injured foot, Milner-skudder ran coaching drills, conducted a question and answer session and posed with a replica of the Webb Ellis Trophy, the spoils of victory on that memorable night at Twickenham.
There were no curly questions, but he departed minus his sponsored cap.
‘‘Someone took off with my hat. They actually asked for it. That was probably the best question of the day,’’ he said.
‘‘The kids were awesome, a great school to be at and we had an awesome powhiri welcome. To be on the receiving end of that, being a pretty proud Maori boy, was really special.’’