Dunedin’s Super Rugby team the Highlanders look set to play the next six weeks without star All Black halfback Aaron Smith.
Smith injured his ankle in the Highlanders 33-26 loss to the Blues in the sixth round and coach Aaron Mauger has confirmed that he will be unavailable for “four to six weeks.”
“He’s probably going to be four to six weeks, hopefully, earlier, but it’s looking like that time, the end of April, start of May,” Mauger told Stuff.
“He got it with a couple of minutes to go and it wasn’t too bad at the start and he carried on for those last few minutes, but it was pretty sore afterwards.”
The Highlanders have a bye this weekend and return next week with a match at home against the Hurricanes at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The Highlanders will most likely call on Kayne Hammington or Folau Fakatava but Mauger has said they could call in extra cover.
He added: “We’re just having a look around at the moment and we’ll probably have that sorted in the next couple of days.
“We’re not in this week so we have a bit of time up our sleeves to have a look around.”