Australia and Queensland prop David Shillington faces a fight to be fit for next month’s Anzac Test after tearing an abdominal muscle during Canberra’s NRL win over Wests Tigers on Monday night.

Shillington was forced off the field at Campbelltown early in the second half of the Raiders’ 30-16 triumph after sustaining the injury to his left oblique muscle.

He will undergo scans on Tuesday, but the 28-year-old says he’ll spend at least the next two to three weeks recovering.

It will leave him racing against time for the clash with New Zealand in Auckland on April 20.

“I signalled to the bench to come off straight away because otherwise it would have been a six to eight week injury had I carried on,” Shillington said.

“I will just have to rehab hard and hope I pull up well.”

Shillington missed large chunks of last season with a torn pectoral muscle and there were fears he’d re-injured it again, which would have almost certainly ended his State of Origin and Test aspirations.

“I had this injury before in ’09 so I knew immediately what I had done, but there is definitely a tear there and it is something you can’t really play through,” he said.

Shillington missed the Anzac Test last year after tearing his pectoral muscle – also against the Tigers – and the giant forward joked that Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens was getting his players to target him.

“He must be telling them to hurt me,” he said.

“I won’t jump to any conclusions about when I will be back. Hopefully it will be before the Anzac Test and State of Origin.

“But I have to get back for the Raiders first and the rest will look after itself.”