All Black Quinn Tupaea out for 9 months after nasty hit

All Blacks midfielder Quinn Tupaea has had his return to rugby significantly delayed with the All Blacks announcing his knee rehabilitation expected to be at least nine months.

Tupaea was initially expected to miss two to three months after he had multiple knee ligaments injured in a dangerous cleanout by Wallabies lock Darcy Swain in the All Blacks' 39-37 Bledisloe win in Melbourne.

However, the All Blacks announced this morning Tupaea's timeline is now much worse.

"Further scans have revealed more extensive damage to the ACL which will require surgery," the All Blacks tweeted in a statement.

"Quinn will be out for nine months, including the 2023 Super Rugby season."

For Swain's involvement in the injury, he was initially given a yellow card in the match before copping a six-week ban last week.

The judiciary alleged the second rower contravened Law 9.11, which states players must not do anything that is reckless and dangerous to others, stating while it "was not intentional, however it was highly reckless".

Swain's teammates said despite the commentary around the cleanout - including All Black Beauden Barrett saying Tupaea was a "sitting duck" in the moment - he was "devastated for Quinn".

"There was no intention there to injure him the way that he did," Allan Alaalatoa said last week.

"We definitely as players ... throw the arm around him because he's probably copping a fair bit on social media."

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