New Zealand scrum-half Aaron Smith sidelined with ankle injury

Highlanders will miss the services of All Blacks scrum-half Aaron Smith for at least a month following the ankle injury that he sustained during the recently concluded Super Rugby game against Auckland Blues.

The incident happened during the second half of the game in Auckland that was won by Blues 33-26 and head coach Aaron Mauger has confirmed that the 30-year-old will be sidelined for four to six weeks.

“He’s probably going to be four to six weeks, hopefully earlier, but it’s looking like that time, the end of April, start of May,” Mauger said.

“He got it with a couple of minutes to go and it wasn’t too bad at the start and he carried on for those last few minutes, but it was pretty sore afterwards.”

Highlanders are currently positioned third in the Australian Conference after managing to win just two games from six matches and will be next seen in action on 5th April when they take on Hurricanes at Forsyth Barr Stadium.