Resilient Flynn 'wrapped' to be back

His arm protectors won't match the size of Victor Matfield's monstrosities, but Corey Flynn will be taking no chances when the Super 14 kicks off next weekend.

The hooker will play in a game on Thursday night involving the Crusaders and their wider training group players his first match since leaving the All Blacks tour with a broken arm in November. If he emerges unscathed he hopes to make an appearance against the Chiefs at AMI Stadium in Christchurch on February 14.

After breaking his left arm three times and his right once, Flynn, who has steel rods in both limbs, will be wrapping his forearms up like a couple of tightly-rolled kebabs.

There will no attempt to emulate the giant guard Mal Meninga wore during his rugby league career, though.

"Well, they are not going to be quite as big," Flynn said. "I'm not going to look like Victor Matfield either, but I will have some sort of padding there to take that initial blow and add a bit of confidence as well."

Flynn's most recent break was in his left arm against Munster.

During the off-season he also had surgery on his right thumb to re-attach a tendon he ruptured just before last year's Air New Zealand Cup final. The operation eight weeks ago required the grafting of a tendon from one of his fingers.

It has been suggested Flynn needs to refine his tackling technique but he said he had isolated each incident and each break happened in different incidents.

"The first [broken arm] was stupidity, when I was just young, and the second was just bad luck and had not healed properly. The third was in the Super 14 when my arm hit Hosea Gear's kneecap and a couple of inches higher it would have been a good tackle and I would have been able to carry on.

"The one in the UK, the surgeon said the fracture line was conducive to me attempting to steal the ball and someone coming down on my forearm."

The steel rod meant the most recent break only went as far as the metal and no surgery was required: "Not having the operation on my left arm was obviously a big thing because then all it is is just bone healing."

With Flynn skipping pre-season matches against the Western Force and Highlanders, Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder has given Jason Macdonald and wider training group player Daniel Perrin runs at hooker.

While he said the injuries had been disheartening, Flynn, 28, never seriously contemplated retiring.

Tomorrow night's match at Rugby Park will be the Crusaders' final hit-out before they meet the Chiefs.

The pre-season match was arranged after plans to play against British clubs Ospreys and Northampton crumbled because Sanzar delayed the release of the 2009 Super 14 draw.

- © Fairfax NZ News