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It's not just the Super 14 that is hobbling New Zealand's top rugby players, with English-based Luke McAlister out for at least a month following surgery.
Sale second five-eighth McAlister underwent a minor knee operation last week that is diagnosed to require four to six weeks of recovery.
The club's director of rugby Kingsley Jones said McAlister took a knee niggle into this month's table-topping match against Gloucester and had emerged in pain.
"The doctors investigated it and saw that there was a meniscus tear," Jones told The Manchester Evening News.
"It looks like being a four-to-six week recovery but I wouldn't be surprised if he came back in three weeks as that's the sort of bloke he is."
Meanwhile, the newspaper said McAlister's long-term future is set to be decided this week, reporting "the indications are that he is set to return home to New Zealand".
There has been speculation for several weeks that McAlister will leave Sale and is weighing up a shift home or lucrative offers to play in France.
"As regards to his future I think it's between us and one other club and one way or another we should know later this week," Jones said.
- NZPA