SYDNEY - Bulldogs star Sonny Bill Williams has been ruled out of the New Zealand side for next month's league test against Australia.
X-rays on his right arm have revealed a spiral fracture of the radius, a result of the bone being twisted.
"It's like if you geta stick out of the garden and twist it and it breaks," Bulldogs doctor Hugh Hazard said of the damage that will rule Williams out for a minimum of eight weeks.
His specialist has yet to determine whether to insert a plate and recovery time is expected to be longer than the eight weeks without surgery.
The second-rower suffered the injury early in the Bulldogs' 25-6 semifinal loss to Parramatta on Saturday.
He returned to the field without painkillers late in the match in a last ditch effort to help the Dogs save their season, but was forced off again soon after.
"The doc said that if he needled it up I wouldn't be able to move my arm at all," Williams told the Nine Network. He didn't really do much because when I was out there I couldn't move it."
Williams denied suggestions he was overly susceptible to injury.
"Injury's a big part of the game but this year was the fittest I've been for a while and I didn't get any injuries.
"It's just bad luck."
The Kiwis host Australia in Wellington on October 14.
Hooker Nathan Fien, the centre of the "grannygate" row a year ago, was yesterday added to the Kiwis train-on squad.
Fien was ruled ineligible during last year's Tri-Nations after already having appeared in two tests for the Kiwis.
It was revealed that his great-grandmother, and not his grandmother as required, was New Zealand-born.
However, Fien, 28, will be eligible to turn out under another criterion - he has lived in Auckland for the past three years.
