New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills has been ruled out of action for at least four months following a shoulder and knee injury.
The 30-year-old will be required to have a surgery on his knee this Friday and an operation to repair a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder the following week.
Mills said that he is targeting the ICC Twenty20 World Cup next April for his comeback to international cricket.
"Hopefully I can rehab well and be back playing cricket towards the end of March. My surgeons seem reasonably confident I will be back playing by that time," Mills said.
"With the World Cup not until towards the end of April it gives me a good month-and-a-half of cricket before that tournament," he added.
The injury to Mills also opens the door for fellow bowler Shane Bond, who has stepped straight off an international flight into four-day domestic cricket. He turned out for Canterbury in their Plunket Shield match against Otago in Rangiora.
Bond is hoping that the match will springboard him quickly in to higher honours, as he had said that he wants to play in the first Test against Pakistan, but in order to get picked he needs to show the selectors he is capable of playing four day cricket again.
The Black Caps' first Test against Pakistan starts next week in Dunedin.
