The All Whites vice captain Tim Brown is booked in for surgery on his fractured shoulder in Auckland this morning, still hopeful of making next month's World Cup finals in South Africa.
Brown took two heavy falls during the first half of the match against the Socceroos in Melbourne on Monday night, fracturing his shoulder in the initial fall, and later landing directly on the fracture.
The former All Whites captain, Danny Hay, says if Brown can't make it to South Africa, it'll leave a big hole in the side.
But Brown is staying positive about the procedure, and says if the surgery goes well, he has a good chance of making it to South Africa.
A final decision on his likely recovery time will be made next week.
Meanwhile a replacement will be named in the next 24 hours to travel to Austria for this weekend's warmup game against Serbia.
