All Blacks flanker Sam Cane says suffering a broken neck has given him perspective as uncertainty clouds his return to rugby.

Cane will resume playing in the second half of the Super Rugby championship for the Chiefs in a best-case scenario, at least eight months after the injury.

The 27-year-old fractured vertebrae during the win over South Africa in Pretoria last October but escaped nerve damage that could have had severe consequences.

He was in a brace for three months and is due to see a specialist in April to see if the vertebrae fused in surgery are strong enough to withstand heavy contact.

The man who succeeded Richie McCaw as the first-choice All Blacks No.7 could return for the Chiefs in May and force his way into the frame for the Rugby World Cup, four months later.

Sixty-Test veteran Cane is simply grateful to be on his feet. Anything else is a bonus.

“It probably put rugby in perspective within half a day for me,” he told journalists.

“People were saying ‘will you be right for the World Cup?’. I was just like, honestly, that’s the furthest thing from my mind at the moment.”

Cane’s absence means All Blacks team-mate Brodie Retallick will be sole captain of the Chiefs for much of their campaign.

Retallick was named Cane’s co-captain this week for the Super Rugby season beginning next month.