Damian McKenzie gives first update after devastating knee injury
All Blacks and Chiefs fullback Damian McKenzie has given an update on social media for the first time since an ACL injury that ruled him out of the World Cup.
The 24-year-old sustained the injury against the Blues last month, but had remained quiet since then. However, he took to Instagram today to say that he has had surgery on his knee, and is now facing a different challenge to the one he was hoping for this year.
Nonetheless, he remains upbeat, saying that he is “[l]ooking forward to accomplishing little goals day by day and coming back even better next year.”
This is what he said:
This injury has had a major impact on both the Chiefs’ and the All Blacks’ seasons, as the injury came only days after being named in Steve Hansen’s provisional squad. There is no doubt that McKenzie would have been on the plane to Japan in September, and would have very likely been a starter for the national team.
McKenzie’s injury has caused problems for Hansen in terms of who he is replaced by, as he operated as a third choice fly-half whilst primarily being a fullback. His versatility is what marks the diminutive back out as a crucial member of the All Blacks team, and so hard to replace.
However, perhaps the Chiefs are the ones that have suffered the most in McKenzie’s absence, as they have been severely pushed for fly-halves this season. Although 21-cap All Black started the first few games of the season at 10, to not much avail, he would have helped during this current crisis, which has seen the team call upon veteran Stephen Donald.
There is no good time to get an injury like this, but this is perhaps the worst for McKenzie, with a World Cup on the horizon and after showing some good form with the Chiefs. However, he seems determined to come back better in 2020.
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Everyone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
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