Ethan Blackadder's Super season over with yet another injury
The injury-prone Ethan Blackadder has suffered yet another setback in his Crusaders and All Black journey, Scott Robertson announcing Wednesday that the flanker injured his quad within minutes of taking the field in the Crusaders' quarter-final win on Saturday.
It was an unbelievable sight for the home crowd as the relentless nine-time All Black went down clutching his leg, having just returned from a calf strain that kept him sidelined since March.
The initial evaluation looked to be precautionary as Blackadder walked off the field, leaving the Crusaders to finish the game with just 13 men.
However, Robertson confirmed Wednesday that while the timeline for Blackadder's recovery is unclear, it would be "many weeks" before he was cleared for any game time.
“He did a good job, as Ethan tends to do with it. We really feel for him, he trained so hard to get back, just his couple of little touches in that four minutes was pretty amazing... just shows what we’ve missed.”
Blackadder's name wasn't the only one missing from the Crusaders' Sem Final team announcement, lock Sam Whitelock is also out while nursing his Achilles injury. Lock Zach Gallagher also suffered a calf injury against the Drua and will be absent in the Semi-Final.
The All Black pair join Joe Moody, George Bower, Fletcher Newell, Sevu Reece, David Havili and Cullen Grace as New Zealand representatives out of action for the Crusaders' playoff run.
The uncompromising nature of Blackadder's on-field intensity was discussed on this week's Aotearoa Rugby Pod episode, where Joey Wheeler praised Blackadder's mentality as his biggest strength but also his biggest liability.
"The way he plays the game,"Wheeler said. "That (injury toll) is just a by-product of the style of footy player he is. He is rip, sh*t and bust. He has a complete disregard for his body and I think he is going to be in the triage ward a bit throughout his career.
"But he is the ultimate professional, super resilient and he always comes back bigger and stronger and a better rugby player for it."
Teammate Quinten Strange finds himself again in the starting lineup in Sam Whitelock's absence and commented on Blackadder's tireless recovery work.
“He's sitting in meetings with his foot in an ice bucket and all sorts," Strange said. "He's doing everything, and I really hope, for his sake, we can get the job done, and he gets the chance to wear the jersey one more time.”
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Think we have to accept we have been on the slide for a while now.Still interesting to see the repeated media pieces about the myth of the ABs slipping-I would say slipped past tense.In part don’t we have to give credit for the improvement of other nations particularly Ireland?Isnt that good for the game?Are we beginning to feel the impact of losing the Boks from Super rugby and maybe soon TRC?I would agree we are also ran right now so will be interesting to see how we progress-assuming we do!Isnt that part of sport though to be in improvement mode?Back to the stats though I think the Boks were under 60% leading into 2019?Now with the focus on the RWC does it matter so much what you are doing between tournaments?You just get through your group(remembering the ABs qualified 2nd in 2023)and then you have 3 matches to win the thing.
Go to commentsThe ABs have more than enough back line guys so don’t see issue there. Just the balance at center and feel time for Rieko to sit out.Forwards- balance still not right. Front row ok but miss Codie. But still ok. Locks- you now need to start s a tall timber at middle of lineout- Darry is the right guy. Then move Sititi to 8, move Ardie to 7 and then move Vaai to blindside. He can become the closest to PSdT . Then have proper bench as this is not a demotion but key to dominating last 30 minutes- Patrick, Ofa etc are golden here. Get the balance right between starters and finishers
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