CUT DOWN: Dan Pryor will miss this weekend's semifinal against the Waratahs.PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
CUT DOWN: Dan Pryor will miss this weekend's semifinal against the Waratahs.PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
The Highlanders' dream run to the Super Rugby play-offs will go on without Northland loose forward Dan Pryor.
Pryor suffered a dislocated elbow in the 61st minute of last weekend's Super Rugby qualifier against the Chiefs in Dunedin and could be sidelined for some time yet.
"It was just oneof those freak things," Pryor said yesterday, after his arm was scanned for bone fragments. "I knew what happened straight away, I knew it was no good."
Upon recalling the incident, Pryor said his teammates told him to hang back.
Despite this he remained in the line, prepping up to take a hit if one of the Chiefs players decided to run at him.
"The boys were telling me to get out of the way," he said.
As a result of the Highlanders being a man down, Brodie Retallick crashed over the line for a try - at which point medical staff tended to Pryor's situation with haste.
"There were people there then I was straight off to the hospital," he said.
As his arm will be in plaster for the next 10 days, Pryor said he will have to get used to toning things down.
This will include toning down the amount of exercise he's physically able to do and coming to terms with, potentially, missing the start of the ITM Cup, which, for the Taniwha, kicks off August 16.
"I probably won't run for a while. I'll just sit on the couch and do weights [instead]. That's what you play footy for, to play that top tier of rugby. To get cut down is gutting."
The full extent of Pryor's injury won't be realised until next week when his cast comes off but he hinted he could be out for a few months.
