All Blacks Captain Cane Moves To Allay Fears Over Knee Injury
Sam Cane is no doctor, though he probably does have a fair sort of handle on his body. And there’ll be a few rather invested parties hoping the All Blacks skipper and Chiefs co-captain is on the money about his latest injury.
The veteran openside flanker was an early casualty in the Chiefs’ 5421 Super Rugby Pacific battering of the Force in Hamilton on Saturday after copping a knock to his right knee.
The sight of the 30-year-old at least walking unaided from the field at FMG Stadium Waikato was a positive, though of course Aaron Cruden did the same for the Chiefs in 2015 in Christchurch and it turned out to be an ACL tear that wrecked his World Cup hopes.
And so coach Clayton McMillan applied a dose of caution to Cane’s
optimism when giving an update on his talismanic leader postmatch.
“He seems to think it’s okay,” McMillan said. “But every player thinks their injury is not too bad until they wake up the next day.
“But he’s walking around fine, so hopefully just minor.”
After being attended to by medical staff, Cane initially looked set to battle on, before instead being replaced.
McMillan said it was likely Cane would go for scans, but only after they see how he presents at a medical clinic on Sunday morning.
The Chiefs travel to Fiji on Thursday for their final regular season match against the Drua in Lautoka on Saturday, where a win would secure them hosting rights for their quarterfinal the following week.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster could also be rather anxious, with Ireland’s series six weeks away and Cane in line to return to lead the national side, having dipped his toes back in with them on last year’s northern tour following pectoral surgery.
“I think he probably would’ve carried on, because he’s just that type of guy,” McMillan said. “The advice of the medical team was that it just wasn’t worth risking, so we didn’t.”
The Drua game should finally see All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick return to the fold, too, nine weeks since breaking his thumb against
the Crusaders in Hamilton.
“We’re really confident that everyone that’s not a season-ending injury that wasn’t available this week for whatever reason will be back next week,” McMillan said.
“So hopefully the stars align over the weekend and we turn up on Tuesday and there’s not too much more to worry about, we can actually take somewhere close to a fullstrength
squad to Fiji.”
And that would of course be a squad including Cane. -Rugby Heaven