Hurricanes players celebrate a try during the round two Super Rugby Pacific match between Hurricanes and Fijian Drua at McLean Park. Photo: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images
Hurricanes utility back Harry Godfrey has sustained a ruptured ACL while training with Hawke's Bay in the NPC. He will require surgery and is expected to be unavailable for the entire 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season.
It's another blow for Godfrey who missed the bulk of this season after a leg injury in round five, after he'd earlier scored a match-winning try against the Drua in round two.
First five is a seemingly cursed position for the Hurricanes recently, with Brett Cameron and Lucas Cashmore ruled out for the majority of the season with knee injuries of their own. The dire situation saw Riley Hohepa helm the side through a tough opening half of the competition, before the transition of Ruben Love from fullback played no small part in the team's dramatic turnaround and eventual top four finish.
Godfrey had currently been having a big impact for Hawke's Bay, with the team heading into a crunch quarterfinal this weekend against Taranaki.
"It's hugely disappointing for us and Harry to get a serious injury in the NPC and take him out of contention for the Super Rugby Pacific season ahead," Hurricanes head coach Clark Laidlaw said.
"It was pretty obvious last year that Harry was stepping up to become a real valued member of the squad. The way he was playing in the NPC this year, I think you could see that maturity was starting to come. We will support him post-operation at the end of the month. I'm sure he'll be back bigger and better and stronger. We have a good track record here of players returning well from injury, so our medical crew and strength and conditioning team will get to work through November and help with Harry's recovery."
Earlier this year, Hurricanes assistant coach Cory Jane described Godfrey as "an absolute general".
"If you look back at the start of preseason, and I've been in the team for a couple years with him, every time he got up to speak everyone would laugh at him because he was kind of like a jokester and like the little boy.
"But now he's just turned into the absolute general of our team and stepped in and gone, I want to be the starting 10 and the boss of this team. It's been awesome to see and he'll get better too. When he's speaking to the boys in meetings now, it's unbelievable."
The Hurricanes will announce an injury replacement for Godfrey, and the full squad for next season, next month.
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