The Hurricanes are unsure how long Ardie Savea will be out for after his knee surgery next week, while they have plans in place should coach John Plumtree be called up as an All Blacks assistant under Ian Foster.
Hurricanes CEO Avan Lee said Savea, who broke the news of the injury on Instagram this morning, would be out for between three and five months.
“We’re not sure how long he’s going to be out for, but the surgeon will operate next week and then we’ll have a lot more knowledge about the extent of that injury,” Lee told 1 NEWS.
“There’s definitely ligament damage, we know it’s going to be at least three months, it could be as much as five, we’re not making any judgement on that at the moment but once we get the diagnosis next week, we’ll have an idea of the rehab time.”
The current Hurricanes coach has thrown his name in with Foster, 1 NEWS understands
Lee was backing the depth of the squad to come to the fore in the absence of the All Blacks superstar.
“He’s obviously upset that he’s not going to be there for the Hurricanes at the start of next season,” Lee said.
“I guess in professional sport you’ve got to be quite philosophical about injuries, that’s why we’ve got a squad and we’ve got players we’re very confident in.”
There is also the possibility that the Hurricanes could lose coach Plumtree, who will step up as an assistant to Foster succeed Steve Hansen as All Blacks coach.
“Obviously there’s a process going on with New Zealand Rugby, we’re following that closely, we’re in constant dialogue with the people that might be affected,” Lee said.
“We don’t know what might happen, but we have plans in place in case it does.”
“For us it’s business as usual, Plum(tree) is 100 per cent focused on the Hurricanes, in a couple more weeks we’ll know more about the All Blacks and we can act accordingly.”
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