Sam Cane will return to the rugby field for the first time since suffering a serious neck injury last October. He will come off the bench in the highly anticipated Chiefs v Blues match at Eden Park, and told Te Ao Māori News that he is excited to be back.
“After all the contact work I’ve been doing in training, we though there was no reason why I can’t come back a week earlier than the original plan,” he told us today at Chiefs training in Hamilton.
If he was called upon to enter the game earlier than expected, Cane was confident his fitness would see him through.
“Oh yeah, I’d be able to do it. It is physical but it’s mainly a mental challenge.”
However, he did admit he’d be an "absolute wreck" for the following week. Cane’s long break came about due to a neck injury in the All Blacks’ final Rugby Championship test of the year against the Springboks in Pretoria. He says the journey back to playing has been a long one.
“Every step has been a little milestone, a little hurdle in itself but I don’t allow myself to overthink the whole situation, go through worst-case scenarios.”
Cane’s Chiefs go into tomorrow night’s game with the motivation of avoiding the wooden spoon in the New Zealand Conference, something that the Blues have had a mortgage on for the last six seasons.