The Chiefs face the prospect of having a fourth rugby player ruled out for the season with injury and other players out temporarily this week as they prepare for their Super 12 semifinal push.
Coach Ian Foster admitted on Monday night that Saturday’s 34-27 landmark win over the Sharks in Durban had come at a huge cost.
Fullback Loki Crichton, invalided out of the match early in the second half, has a suspected anterior cruciate ligament injury to his knee that may rule him out for the rest of the season.
He was to undergo a scan and specialist examination on Tuesday.
Already gone for the season are centre Regan King, hooker Tom Willis and wing Roger Randle, the latter now officially replaced by New Zealand Sevens and Waikato representative Sosene Anesi.
Centre Keith Lowen tore a hamstring in the dying stages of the Sharks match, while lock Sean Hohneck suffered a ”quite bad” AC joint injury to his shoulder, according to Foster.
Both were rated 90% likely to be ruled out for at least this week when the fifth-placed Chiefs take on the second-placed Stormers at Waikato Stadium on Friday night.
In addition, All Blacks openside flanker Marty Holah has a ”slight” medial ligament tear to a knee, although Foster rated his chances of being available for the Stormers match as reasonable.
”So our win came at a price. I’d say of the four at the moment it’s likely we could get one back for this week,” Foster said.
With Crichton’s Super 12 future for this year in doubt, Foster said he had moved to replace Randle as Crichton had previously provided the third-wing cover behind Sitiveni Sivivatu and Lome Fa’atau.
Crichton’s injury could be a two-week one or a six to eight-week one depending on the outcome of Tuesday’s scan.
If it is the latter Foster will also move to replace him in the squad, looking for fullback/midfield cover that at present is provided only by Grant McQuoid.
Injuries aside — and no Chiefs team has ever got this far with such an horrific toll — the biggest challenge for Foster and his management team is to get his team fresh for Friday’s 7.35pm match after travelling back from South Africa, with only two team training runs planned.
”What’s important now is the mental preparation — getting the balance of that and the physical stuff right and getting the excitement factor back up.”
While he believed they had got the formula for freshening players right, they would also depend on good crowd support on Friday to give the team a much-needed extra lift. — Sapa-NZPA