All Black Leonard's annouce that a knee injury was worse than first thought and his season is now over. Brendon Leonard was named in the first All Black squad of the year but the injury saw him replaced by "bad boy" Jimmy Cowan.

Surgery last week revealed more serious damage than first thought and last Tuesday he underwent an operation to have cartilage inside his right knee joint reattached to the bone.

The nine-test World Cup halfback was recuperating at his parents' farm in Okoroire, near Tirau, and was consigned to missing the All Blacks' year-ending tour.