All Black Dan Carter set for 100th test match
Fly half to chalk up milestone against England at Twickenham and hopes to be back for World Cup final in 2015
All things going to plan, Daniel Carter's 100th test match for New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday will not be the last time he plays for the team at England's hallowed home ground.
Carter, who will become the fifth All Black player to achieve the milestone, is hoping to return to London in October 2015 for the World Cup final in what would surely be his international swansong.
The key to achieving that plan, however, lies in the reason why it has taken Carter so long to achieve the 100-cap milestone since he moved into the "nervous nineties" more than a year ago.
The big, burning question is, are [Carter and McCaw] going to make the World Cup?
The 31-year-old will make just his sixth appearance for the world champions in their 13th test match of the year after a series of injury setbacks curtailed his chance to achieve the mark earlier in the season.
A broken hand kept him out of tests against France in June before a calf injury sidelined him from matches against Australia in the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship.
A crunching tackle in September by South Africa hooker Bismarck du Plessis produced a shoulder injury that ended his season before the All Blacks' northern hemisphere tour in November.
Lauded as possibly the greatest fly half to play the game, injuries have been the virtual constant in Carter's career in recent years. A torn Achilles' tendon while playing for Perpignan in France in early 2009 has seemingly been the catalyst for further leg injuries, which have all contributed to an increasing number of absences.
Carter's low point came during the 2011 World Cup when he tore a tendon in his groin while practising goal-kicking ahead of their final pool match against Canada, a game where he had been named captain.