Injury will force multiple Golden Shears champion John Kirkpatrick to miss Masterton's big annual shearing and woolhandling championships next month for the first time since he first entered, and won, in 1993.
The 44-year-old Napier shearer, whose eight major victories at the Golden Shears include four in the glamour open final, has been out of action since suffering a rotator cuff injury in his right shoulder in the United Kingdom last July and underwent surgery in December.
Now out of his sling, he will see his specialist before the end of the month, and says: "We'll see how it goes."
While it's likely to be too late for the Golden Shears, he hopes he will be back in competition nick by the New Zealand Championships in Te Kuiti on April 9-11, the swansong of legendary King Country shearer David Fagan, who had won the Golden Shears open final 12 times in a row before Kirkpatrick ended the run in 2002 with the first of his wins.
Also the winner of the Golden Shears junior title in 1993 and the Senior title in 1994, Kirkpatrick also won the open final in 2008, 2011, and 2012.
