Carter: I need to be realistic about return

Dan Carter. Photo / Getty Images

Hansen poker-faced about recovering star’s selection

Dan Carter was in a cautiously optimistic mood ahead of the All Blacks' departure for their Northern Hemisphere tour yesterday.

At a press conference at Auckland Airport, Carter spoke of the frustration he had felt in trying to recover from the leg fracture and nerve damage he sustained playing for the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final in August. The injury ruled him out of the All Blacks' Rugby Championship campaign and saw him only pick up limited game time for Canterbury in the ITM Cup.

"I'm able to train and do everything," he said. "It's just contact that sets me back a little bit. It's improving, which is encouraging."

Carter said it was difficult to predict how long it would take him to fully recover, given the fickle nature of nerve injuries.

"Nerve pain is quite different. I haven't experienced it before. It's pretty sensitive, but you actually have to give it a good whack. If I sat here and gave it a whack now it would be fine - I can assure you, the physio's been doing that a few times just to make sure it's all right," he said.

The champion No 10 was quick to brush aside any suggestion the injury was part of a general pattern of deterioration of his body.

"It [was] a direct blow," he said of the knock that fractured his leg. "It could happen to anyone at any time. If it was a little tear or something to the muscle then that's when those questions would start. I've got to take a bit of confidence that it was just a direct blow. When you play a contact sport you're going to get injuries like these."

In a nod to the All Blacks success without him this year, Carter was also keen to point out he wasn't labouring under any pressure heading into the tour. He did, however, sound a note of caution about what he will be able to achieve should he see game time.

"If I do get an opportunity it's just a matter of really nailing it, but you've got to be realistic as well. I've played 40 minutes at first-five all year, and I've played only four or five games at second-five. Whether I'm going to set the world alight, who knows?"

While he said he was preparing to play in the tour's opening game against the United States in Chicago next weekend, coach Steve Hansen was poker-faced when it came to Carter's selection.

"We don't name the team till Thursday, and there's a lot of work to be done in between then and now. Both him and Cruden are obviously due for some game time. We'll just see how we draw the names out of the hat."

Another player looking to make a comeback on tour is Sonny Bill Williams.

After playing a full season of NRL for the Sydney Roosters and putting in a shift for Counties Manukau in the later rounds of the ITM Cup, Williams is raring to go for the All Blacks.

"He's going to be considered [for the US game]," said Hansen. "There is no doubt about that. We'll wait and see. I've caught up with him a couple of times today and he seems pretty excited - as they all do, to be frank."