Kahui wants to avoid the knife

 

Kahui dislocated his shoulder during the Chiefs defeat to the Reds two weeks ago and his absence was immediately obvious, as his side had a comfortable lead when he went off.

 

The 26-year-old will meet with a specialist to discover whether or not some good old fashioned rest and rehab will be enough, or whether we must have an operation.

 

It was revealed by the Chiefs last week that no damage had been done to the bone and that Kahui's operations in the past haven't compromised the joint.

 

The tough centre is hoping to make a comeback in late July if all goes according to plan, with an eye towards an All Blacks call-up for the Rugby Championship.

 

"If I can rehab it and come back and it's fine then obviously that's great," he told the Waikato Times.

 

"If it's only eight or 10 weeks, that's my best scenario. 

 

"But then the worst case is the road I've walked down before with surgery, and obviously being out a lot longer."

 

"But with the dislocation something has to give for it to pop out and while I'm not entirely sure what the injury is, it's connected to the ball.

 

"I thought I'd done my dash with those sort of injuries. I looked at the tape and saw what happened and I couldn't have done anything about it really. 

 

"So that's probably the disappointing thing. 

 

"I do my rehab every day and it was just one of those things where someone's landed on the back of my shoulder and popped it out."