Wallabies star David Pocock says he’ll do everything in his power to play at the World Cup but cannot guarantee he’ll overcome a “rare” calf injury in time.
Pocock said it was the right decision to retire from the Brumbies and end his Super Rugby career on Wednesday in a bid to fit for the World Cup in September.
The 31-year-old has played just 138 minutes across three Super Rugby games for the Brumbies this season with the calf complaint keeping him sidelined.
“If I was realistically a chance to get back for the Brumbies I’d be pushing to get back but I don’t think that’s realistic,” Pocock said.
“It’s been frustrating. You’re putting pressure on yourself to get back out there, you want to be contributing and after talking to (Brumbies coach) Dan (McKellar) I think the best thing is to take the pressure off and actually get it right.
“I’d love to play next weekend. It’s one of those things rather than putting a time frame on it they’re going to put things I need to do to be able to progress.
“You can’t speed up the healing process.
“All the specialists we’ve talked to say it’s fairly rare and something I really just need to get right and give it a bit more time than we have.
“A few times I’ve got back to 70 or 80 per cent and thought I was pretty close.
“You’re doing everything you can and you’re obviously aiming for that (the World Cup) and that’s driving you, to pull on the Wallabies jersey again is my goal.
“I’ll be doing everything I can to get myself right.”
The 77-Test veteran is considered one of the best on-ball players in the world and spent 13 seasons in Australian rugby with the Western Force and Brumbies.
But recurring injuries meant he only played 43 of 100 games since joining the Brumbies in 2012 and missed most of 2013 and 2014 with knee injuries.
Pocock has a contract after the World Cup with the Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan and said he hasn’t decided if he’ll play for the Wallabies next year.
The Brumbies have three games remaining and are in the box seat to top the Australian conference and play Super Rugby finals for the first time since 2017.
Pocock will work with the club in an off-field role.
