Kerr-Barlow receives medical attention © Getty Images

Enlarge

All Blacks scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow has been ruled out for up to nine months after he tore both his ACL and Medial ligament as well as ripping his hamstring off the bone in a heavy collision with Springboks flanker Schalk Burger during the All Blacks loss to the Springboks on Saturday night (Sunday morning AEST).

In his first Test this season, Kerr-Barlow managed to stay on the field for another five-minutes despite the horrific injury before he was eventually taken from the field. He is expected to have surgery on his arrival back to New Zealand and Hansen expects him to go through quite a long recovery.

"He's done his ACL," Hansen told Fairfax Media. "He's torn the back of his hamstring off and has done his medial ligament. He needs an operation when we get home. Sometimes they do two operations but he's about a six-to-nine month recovery so it's pretty major.

"When you saw it on the replay it was pretty horrific. He's a brave boy to be able to get up and do what he did, gutsy as hell. He'll have to work hard at his rehab and I'm sure he'll come back. He's a tough kid."

Dan Carter is also expected to be ruled out of the final Bledisloe Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane on October 18 after he sat out of Canterbury's latest ITM Cup clash due to a knee injury. Hansen is likely to keep him out of the squad so that he has more time to regain full fitness and is wary of rushing Carter's recovery. However, Aaron Cruden will be welcomed back into the fold after a two-week suspension, alongside locks Brodie Retallick, Dominic Bird and Patrick Tuipulotu from injury.

"That was disappointing," Hansen told Fairfax Media of Carter's latest injury. "We were hoping he'd get another one and then probably take him to Brisbane. I'll have to have a chat to him when we get home to see where he is at and see whether we give him another game, miss the Brisbane one and he plays again if Canterbury make the semi-finals or finals.

"We want to bring him in when he's feeling confident rather than trying to bring him in and play his way through something. We did that for him last time and it became a nightmare. If we can bring him in when he's injury free and confident in himself we'll get the real Dan Carter."

Hansen has also stated that Ben Smith is likely to miss the All Blacks' clash in Brisbane as he rests the star after a long year. Hansen said Smith was fatigued after he played every minute of the Rugby Championship as well as shared the captaincy duties with Aaron Smith at the Highlanders during the Super Rugby season. This means the utility could have three to four weeks off to rest and recover giving Cory Jane and Charles Piutau a chance to claim a spot against the Wallabies.