{"id":792242,"date":"2026-10-05T02:18:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T02:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792242\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T02:18:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T02:18:23","slug":"all-blacks-no-10-picture-shifts-as-ruben-love-set-for-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792242\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks No.10 picture shifts as Ruben Love set for surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published: 6 hours ago | 4 October 2026 15:59 EDT <\/p>\n

mens<\/p>\n

international<\/p>\n

Ruben Love (R) of New Zealand celebrates with team mate Caleb Clarke after scoring their second try during the Quilter Nations Series 2025 rugby international match between Wales and New Zealand at Principality Stadium on November 22, 2025 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images) \"Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

All Blacks<\/a> first-five Ruben Love has been ruled out for the remainder of 2026 with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie did not name Love for the 2026 Bledisloe Cup series, as he nurses a recurring ankle injury he suffered during the Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes<\/a> playmaker impressed for the All Blacks during his six Test starts in 2026, trusted by Rennie for the big games despite having the experienced Beauden Barrett, Damian McKenzie, and Richie Mo\u2019unga available.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuben Love will undergo surgery after sustaining an ankle ligament injury, ruling him out for the remainder of the year,\u201d an All Blacks statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cWishing Ruben all the best with his surgery and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The devastating news was exclusively revealed on the Sky Sport\u00a0show, The Breakdown, on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cMassive news for the All Blacks, we can reveal exclusively on The Breakdown that our All Blacks first-five, the man who has worn the number 10 jersey for the majority of the Tests this year, Ruben Love sustained an ankle injury in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs surgery, and he will be out for the remainder of the year. So, no more All Black Rugby in that 10 jersey for Ruben Love. Devastating news for him and such a shame considering it\u2019s his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former All Black first-five and current Waikato<\/a> assistant coach Aaron Cruden feels for Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am devastated for Rube, because he earned it through the way that he played and conducted himself through Super Rugby,\u201d Cruden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a test to go and challenge yourself against the world champions over in South Africa. So yeah, I think all of us are just thinking of Ruben right now, hoping that he recovers really quickly, but it\u2019s a good chance for him now to go and reflect on what a year it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both John Afoa and Jeff Wilson shared the same sentiment, including confidence that Love will bounce back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s it. He was up there in South Africa<\/a> against the world\u2019s best, and he would have come back for the Tests against Australia, and he would have cashed in and really found some real confidence and then going into the World Cup year,\u201d Afoa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be disappointed, but he\u2019s the kind of kid that still feels like he\u2019s young enough to bounce back with a smile on his face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame, though, because he\u2019s a player who\u2019s had a number of injuries over his career to date already, and just when he\u2019s starting to build his confidence in the jersey, the way he\u2019s played all season, he led the Hurricanes to a title and for me, this is devastating for him because he was making so many gains,\u201d Wilson said on The Breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience he was getting, now he\u2019s going to have to wait longer. He\u2019s almost got to get himself back into this type of form again, and that\u2019s not going to be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 6 hours ago | 4 October 2026 15:59 EDT mens international Ruben Love (R) of New Zealand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-792242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}