Sweet wake-up call for thrilled Chiefs prop

You could have forgiven Karl Tu’inukuafe for thinking he was still in dream land when he awoke and looked at his phone.

The Chiefs prop was catching up on some sleep following his team’s return from South Africa when he got the shock call that he would be joining the All Blacks squad in preparation for next month’s test series against France.

With Tim Perry injuring a hamstring on the final day of camp in Auckland on Tuesday, it’s Tu’inukuafe who the selectors have plumped for, a bolt from the blue for even the 25-year-old himself, who didn’t have a Super Rugby contract at season’s start.

Perry will be reviewed by Crusaders medical staff over coming days before the squad regather in Christchurch for a three-day camp from Sunday, which will now include one Tu’inukuafe, who is still coming to grips with his inclusion, but which he labelled ‘‘really cool’’.

‘‘I got a missed call, and then a text, it was from the manager, Darren Shand,’’ he said. ‘‘And I just called him back and he said ‘Congratulations’. It was unreal.

‘‘It was just a nice surprise to wake up to, for sure.’’

As much as Tu’inukuafe’s callup is stunning, it’s well deserved, with his huge impression on the Chiefs’ loosehead side during their propping injury crisis.

It presents Tu’inukuafe with another rapid rise.

He has played for North Harbour since 2015, with a season at French club Narbonne in between, before Chiefs coach Colin Cooper invited him to preseason.

With the Chiefs’ stocks taking a hammering, Tu’inukuafe was thrust into action. After six bench appearances, he has now started the past four games, and gone from strength to strength.

‘‘I guess that’s the signal to all players in this country – work hard, understand what you’re capable of, and put your best foot forward,’’ said Cooper.

Tu’inukuafe also hasn’t looked out of place fitness-wise, which is part of a remarkable turnaround from where he was a few years back – sitting at a whopping 170kg (he is now 135kg).

After the Wesley College First XV and Counties Manukau agegroup sides, Tu’inukuafe had stopped playing after starting a family and looking for a job to support them. And it was then that he piled on the weight.

Told in no uncertain times by his doctor to get exercising or risk continually being plagued by his health problems, that was all Tu’inukuafe needed to hear to strap the boots back on, joining his cousins at the Takapuna club.