Zinzan comes through surgery

All Black rugby legend Zinzan Brooke has come through an operation by Spanish doctors to relieve pressure on his brain, and he is awake and talking to his wife.

Brooke, 42, was hurt falling out of a taxi in Elche, 200km south of Valencia in Spain, where he had been coaching the English-based Barbarians side, which beat Spain 52-26 last Wednesday.

According to the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA), he has been joined by his wife Alison, who is pregnant with the their fourth child, and she said on Tuesday that her husband was recovering after a few days of severe pain.

“He has been saying to me `the pain, the throbbing’ and that has gone and I could see that he was instantly relieved.

“I mean he was in and out at that stage and … I was talking to him, I don’t know that he was necessarily hearing, but then he picked up again.

“He’s talking and communicating with me, which is fantastic.”

A spokesman for the Barbarians said Brooke sustained the injury after last Wednesday’s 52-26 win over Spain.

“He got the injury while getting out of a taxi at the hotel in the early hours of Thursday morning. He fell down and hit the back of his head on the ground,” Barbarians press officer Alan Evans said.

Although an initial diagnosis by the team doctor showed Brooke was okay it was recommended he did not fly back with the team.

When he still complained of headaches on Sunday, hospital staff operated to relieve the pressure on his brain caused by a clot.

A release date from the hospital has not yet been set.