All Blacks rookie gives timeframe on return to action after ‘unfortunate’ injury rules him out of Rugby Championship’s start
Noah Hotham during a New Zealand training session and in action for the All Blacks XV (inset).
Rookie All Blacks scrum-half Noah Hotham has given an update on his return to action after he was ruled out of the early rounds of this year’s Rugby Championship due to injury.
He is currently sidelined after he fell under a French player during the closing stages of New Zealand’s 29-19 victory over Les Bleus in Hamilton last month.
That resulted in an ankle injury which required surgery and it meant that Hotham missed the All Blacks‘ trip to Argentina where they will face Los Pumas in back-to-back Rugby Championship Tests in Cordoba and Buenos Aires in the next two weeks.
The injury’s timing is bad for the two-Test rookie as he was eager to make an impression on All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson.
‘We just play it week-by-week’
“Six to eight-ish weeks,” Hotham told Stuff in regards to a potential return. “We just play it week-by-week.
“Feeling good at the minute but coming back slowly, and hopefully get running soon.”
The timeframe that Hotham suggests for his return to action means he could be in the frame for selection when the All Blacks and Wallabies battle each other for the Bledisloe Cup in Auckland on September 27, and Perth on October 4.
Hotham is still in the initial stages of his rehabilitation though, as he is yet to start running.
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‘I will be back by the end of the championship’
“I don’t have the exact dates [for a comeback], but in a couple of weeks I will start speeding things up and ideally I will be back by the end of the championship,” he said.
The 22-year-old is not the only All Blacks scrum-half who is currently sidelined, as first-choice number nine Cam Roigard is also ruled out due to a stress fracture in his foot.
With Roigard dropping out, it means Cortez Ratima is set to start at scrum-half in Saturday’s Rugby Championship opener in Cordoba, with their Finlay Christie or Kyle Preston starting on the replacements bench.
Meanwhile, Hotham, who came on as Ratima’s replacement in that Test against France in Hamilton, was left to reflect on how he sustained his injury.
“In the 80th minute actually. I ran a little bit, dummied, got through a half-gap and then one of their props tackled me from behind, and my foot just caught underneath him,” he explained.
“It was just unfortunate, really.
“I didn’t think it was that bad until the next day, and I was struggling to walk.”