Injury forces Elliot to consider early retirement

Former All Black hooker Hika Elliot has decided to miss most of the 2014 Super Rugby season due to surgery and is now considering retirement.

Elliot has won three Test caps for the All Blacks and says that retiring from rugby is a firm possibility.

The hooker has had part of his hip bone used to fuse his neck together following a bulged disc injury which has gotten progressively worse in recent years.

Elliot’s injury came to a head when the twenty-seven-year-old was playing for the Maori All Blacks against Canada in Toronto last month.

“It’s something that they reckon I’ve been playing with for a couple of years now,” Elliot One News Live Sport.

“Against Canada a few weeks back it just got progressively worse during the game. “

“And then by the time I went to come off I actually couldn’t walk properly. It was quite scary for myself, especially when you’re dealing with your neck, it’s something you need to take care of.”

“I could feel, slowly, my body giving way. My brain would say something and my legs wouldn’t go. “

“And by the time I had actually come off the boys thought I had been concussed because I was a bit wobbly on my feet and couldn’t walk properly.”

“It was just something that got worse and worse and by the time it got to the stage where my legs weren’t working I thought ‘Hey, something’s going wrong here’.”

Elliot, whohas played Super Rugby for the Chiefs for the last five years, initially thought that his injury was just wear and tear but when he started losing feeling in his hands he said he knew something was not right.

“I’ve already made a decision that I’m looking at sitting out most of Super Rugby if not all of Super Rugby this year, and maybe ITM Cup, because I’ve got to weigh my options in terms of my career,” he said.

“And it’s been pretty scary the last couple of weeks. We’ll cross that bridge when it needs to be crossed, but I think for me at the moment it’s just about getting right and doing the rehab side of things.”

Eliot expects to see a specialist in a couple of weeks.