KEY POINTS:
In the midst of serious disappointment, Chiefs centre Richard Kahui is still able to retain his sense of humour.
Asked if he had a couple of minutes for a chat over his year-ending right shoulder injury, the amiable Kahui replied: "Mate, I've got six months."
That's how long the gifted footballer is out of rugby after surgery last week discovered the shoulder problem - which has plagued his Chiefs campaign and restricted him to three appearances - was more serious than first thought.
He will miss Waikato's defence of the Air New Zealand Cup starting in July and now plans to be ready for next year's Super 14.
It's a grim turn of events for a player who was close to winning All Black selection at the end of last year.
Kahui damaged the shoulder in a pre-season game for the Chiefs and underwent several MRI scans during the season, none of which nailed the cause of the injury. "Quite a few people struggled to diagnose it. None of them actually picked up what was wrong," he said.
Kahui knew something significant had gone awry after the last bang on the shoulder against the Highlanders in Queenstown on April 7.
Surgery ended weeks of frustration.
"They were going to go in and have a look around and do a bit of a tidy-up," the 21-year-old said.
"When they got in, they found the ball had slipped out of the socket when I first injured it. It ripped off quite a bit of soft bumper tissue and had taken some cartilage as well."
The soft tissue was stapled back on to the bone, the rotator cuff muscle was fixed and after Kahui gets through his enforced rest the prospects are good for a complete recovery.
"If I do all the right stuff over the next six months and don't try and come back too early, usually these injuries have a 3 to 5 per cent recurring rate. So there's probably more chance of hurting something else before I hurt this again," he said.
His arm is in a sling for six weeks and it'll be three to four months before he can do fitness work on his upper body. "It will be a good chance to sort out the rest of my body and do some work on the old brain to make sure it keeps up."
He will train with Waikato but separately on his own programme, but he's not looking forward to more time in the stands on game day.
"I'm terrible watching rugby. It's not my favourite thing to do."
