Cama says he'll be ready for sevens

Junior Tomasi Cama says he will be wearing the black New Zealand sevens jersey at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next month.

That's despite suffering an orbital fracture of his left cheekbone while playing for Manawatu against Hawke's Bay last Sunday.

The 29-year-old sevens playmaker is confident he will be ready to play even before September 29, the date the Games sevens team is due to assemble.

The Turbos medical staff predict he might get a game or half a game with Manawatu before then, perhaps against Auckland at Palmerston North on September 17.

"I want to play in the next couple of weeks," Cama said.

That might be pushing it but he is desperate to keep up his sevens stamina. And orbital fractures usually heal quickly.

He has been training only lightly this week and won't be doing contact training next week.

Cama came to grief early in the game against Hawke's Bay when flanker Karl Lowe's boot smashed into Cama's face.

"The back of his boot got me," Cama said. "My teeth are still numb; I still can't feel them."

Of course, a worried New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens was on the phone to the Fijian the morning after the Manawatu match.

"He asked me why I played on," Cama said. "I told him I didn't know it was fractured."

Turbos physiotherapist Mike Harnett and doctor Ra Durie cottoned on because they saw his face blow up. His left eye was totally closed that night.

Cama desperately wants to be at New Delhi with his Turbos team-mate, Lote Raikabula.

Cama missed the Melbourne Commonwealth Games four years ago when he snapped a posterior cruciate ligament in his knee. He now plays without an intact posterior cruciate in either knee but it affects him only in speed training.

He has played for the New Zealand sevens team since 2005. Under coach Dave Rennie at Manawatu, he has played on both wings, at second five-eighth, centre and this season at first five-eighth.

- © Fairfax NZ News