ABs stars in test doubt
Super Sams — Whitelock and Cane — struggling to be fit for first test against France
Cane, like Whitelock, is also out this weekend as he’s still being troubled by a minor stomach injury.
He has been with the All Blacks in camp, having extensive treatment and says he isn’t overly troubled by the injury but frustrated that after a few weeks, it still hasn’t quite fully come right. The Chiefs flanker is reluctant to put a date on his probable return to action. But again, the
All Blacks coaches are expecting him to be fit and available to play in the first test.
“It’s a frustrating one,” Cane said, “because even that week that I picked it up when we played the Jaguares in Rotorua, I thought ‘I could probably play at a push this weekend’. And just the nature of it, they’re likening it to a hamstring or a calf strain, but it’s a little bit more uncommon that it’s an abdominal one. So there’s no real time frame on it. It feels like it’s almost there but it’s probably not quite, so unfortunately another week. I’ll do my best to be patient to get it right properly.”
Injuries were the story of last season and they have dominated the narrative in Super Rugby this year, too, and the All Blacks are wary that they have a number of players in their probable match-day 23 who are short of football.
Owen Franks only returned to play from major Achilles surgery in late April and will miss the next two games due to suspension.
Joe Moody has managed only 50 minutes with the Crusaders due to returning late from shoulder surgery, then a broken finger and now suspension.
Liam Squire has missed most of the Highlanders’ campaign with a broken thumb and Sonny Bill Williams has been back for only two games having missed seven weeks with a wrist injury.
Ryan Crotty is another who has endured a disrupted season mostly due to repeat head knocks and there has already been a casualty from within the 33-man squad, with Tim Perry having strained his hamstring while in camp on Tuesday. He has been replaced by Karl Tu’inukuafe,
HFrench far from second-rate, B14 who owes his elevation to the extended injury toll the Chiefs have suffered at prop this year which saw him unexpectedly come into the starting XV as he was signed in a development capacity.
There has been one cheerier injury update for All Blacks coach Steve Hansen with Kieran Read is progressing strongly in his recovery from back surgery.
“It is getting better than day by day now,” said Hansen. “He is starting to train and do things more consistently a lot more pain free. “We just don’t want to put a date on it because then we might make the mistake of bringing him back too soon. His body will tell him when he is ready. He will train with us over the next three weeks.”