KEY POINTS:
Right now All Black Mils Muliaina struggles to find a positive side to his broken foot.
But there is one. X-rays revealed that he already had a stress fracture in the foot before breaking a metatarsal bone in a practice match in Auckland last week.
"The surgeon told me it was always going to happen anyway," Muliaina said.
So, given a choice of the break occurring now - possibly sidelining him for the rest of the Chiefs' Super 14 campaign - or perhaps in the opening World Cup match against Italy in Marseilles in September, it's a no-brainer.
"I suppose in a way it is a little bit like that. But I'm gutted," he said. "I was really looking forward to playing. But if it happened further down the line it would have been devastating.
"In saying that, I'd probably rather have had it break earlier so I could be back playing right now."
Muliaina was the first major casualty of the reconditioning All Blacks returning to match play. The All Black selectors will have their fingers crossed this weekend, the first round for which the 22 retuned All Blacks were allowed to return to action.
Muliaina didn't realise the extent of the damage at first, thinking he might have pulled a muscle or rolled his ankle early in the match for the Chiefs wider training group against the Blues equivalent. It was not until he got up after the match and found he couldn't put any weight on the foot that he got twitchy.
The x-ray had been a surprise. Part of Muliaina's frustration comes from having been troubled by a hamstring twinge during reconditioning. That meant he could not fully stretch out. Had he done so, the injury might have revealed itself weeks ago.
He said he was lucky it wasn't worse and he had been told to take things "nice and slow". There's no weight-bearing training for four weeks; it could be eight before he's back, but he's optimistic.
He hopes to be fit for the Chiefs' final round robin match on May 4 against the Crusaders. And if they make an improbable charge to the playoffs, all the better. In the meantime, there's more rugby-watching to be done.
"I'm sick of watching, to be honest. Another few weeks will be frustrating. I'll just have to work hard and not eat so many Girl Guide biscuits."
