Shoulder surgery for Dagg

Editor

Hawke's Bay full-back Israel Dagg appears to no longer be a back-up option for New Zealand at the Rugby World Cup as he requires shoulder surgery.

The Magpies and Crusaders fifteen, who was left out of the 31-man squad by coach Steve Hansen, was performing well in the ITM Cup before injury struck.

Had there been an injury to one of the All Blacks' back-three members, it would have been likely Dagg received a phone call to head over to the tournament.

But after dislocating his shoulder against Auckland last Thursday and now needing surgery to fix the problem, his World Cup hopes have been ended.

"We'll just move on to 2016," he told the New Zealand Herald via Newstalk ZB.

"It's been a tough year but life goes on and you've just got to keep going up."

On his own recent ITM Cup form and missing out on the initial squad, Dagg added: "I just left my run a bit late. I felt I probably hadn't done enough to make that World Cup. You always hope you are going to make it but I expected it wasn't going to be the phone call I wanted. But I was kind of ready for it."