New Zealand's best hockey player Simon Child is having to face the prospect that his career at the top might be over.
The Black Sticks attacker has been sidelined for a year, since damaging a hip playing in the Hockey India League. It proved a worse injury that first thought and he hasn't played a game since then.
Now he's having surgery in mid-May, once he returns from his honeymoon. He was to have gone under the knife this week but the required surgery turned out to be ''gruntier'' than had been expected, hence the rearrangement.
''I've been able to start doing a bit of running, but very basic, straight line and at a pretty slow pace,'' Aucklander Child, 29, said.
''I haven't come close to playing any form of competitive hockey. I've done some light gym work and built up strength, but every time I try to do some lateral stuff, or acceleration, it gets pretty sore and flares up quickly.''