All Blacks confirm Richie Mo'unga's timeline among other injury updates

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has delivered an injury update after naming his 36-man squad for the Nations Championship, including in the competition’s inaugural finals weekend.

Injury clouds hung over several New Zealand players heading into the November Test window, with more than a dozen others confirmed unavailable.

Fehi Fineanganofo, Jordie Barrett, Patrick Tuipulotu, Leicester Fainga’anuku and Richie Mo’unga have all missed time due to what are understood to be short-term injuries, but Tuipulotu is the only one of the cohort to have missed selection in the final New Zealand squad of the year.

“As you saw with Patty, he was phenomenal against Ireland,” Rennie said after revealing his squad. “He played a fair bit of footy for us in South Africa.

“He had a little calf injury. He’s back running fully now; he hasn’t done any contact or full contact yet, but he’s technically available for selection. But the quality of the players we’ve got there at the moment.”

Mo’unga travelled with the team during the Bledisloe Cup Series despite pulling out with a calf tear sustained while training for game one of the series. Rennie has confirmed he will not be available for selection for the first Test of the tour, a run-in with Scotland at Murrayfield.

“Richie won’t be available for Scotland,” the coach asserted. “He’s a good chance for Wales. So we made a decision that it’s better to bring him in. He’s a strong chance, obviously from the World Cup perspective, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job around him.

“We took him to Sydney, so our MedFit guys could spend a lot of time building him up. He’s run really well over the last week, and we’ll continue to build it when we get to Scotland. But likely available for Wales.”

Tyrel Lomax is one of the latest to require rehab, continuing a stretch of consecutive injuries by succumbing to a persistent neck problem.

“Tyrel, we decided to leave at home. He’s been troubled with the neck injury for quite a while, and so we had Siale (Lauaki) in Africa, and we had Saula come in as a replacement. And Saula’s a massive man; he’s had an excellent NPC, big scrummager, can hit things and make a presence.

“And I think Siale’s probably better around the field, maybe not quite as strong at tighthead scrummaging, so they’re always decisions.

“I mean, even the hooking spot, you know, with Samisoni out, obviously nice that Asafo’s back; George Bell. But Bradley Slater’s had a really good year as well. So, we’re starting to get a bit of depth.”