Carter injured...again

All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter has, one again, returned to the sidelines after bruising his calf during a provincial match for Canterbury.

The influencial pivot was playing in his first match since breaking his leg in the 2014 Super Rugby final against the Waratahs.    

He played 40 minutes against Southland but was bothered with a calf injury and failed to convince Canterbury coach Scott Robertson he would be able to get through the game in Christchurch.

"He bruised his calf in last Sunday's match against Southland and although he has been recovering well, was ruled out of contention at Fridays's captain's run," the team said in a statement.

Carter has barely played at all this year after he was given a six-month sabbatical by the New Zealand Rugby Union, with a view of having surgery on niggling injuries and work on his conditioning, in order to ensure he was in peak physical form at next year's World Cup in England.

He returned to first class rugby off the bench for the Crusaders in the final few rounds of Super Rugby and was playing well before he broke his leg against the Waratahs during the final in early August.

He had originally expected to be out for about a month, then said he hoped to be considered for the All Blacks' final two Rugby Championship matches against Argentina and South Africa respectively.

He missed both deadlines and was released by the All Blacks' squad to work on his match fitness with an eye to being available for the third Bledisloe game against the Wallabies before their end-of-year tour to the United States and Britain.

Canterbury's final regular season game is on October 12 away to Taranaki but it is unclear whether All Blacks' coach Steve Hansen would be willing to allow Carter to play the game if he still wants him to play in Brisbane.

It's not clear how long Carter might be sidelined for.

NZ Newswire & Newstalk ZB