Parker (26) has injured his knee again and is due to see a specialist in the next few days. The injury has led to the return of Tasman first five-eighth Marty Banks, who is back training with the Highlanders squad.
Highlanders coach Tony Brown said it was not 100% clear how bad Parker’s injury was. There would be a wait for the next few days before Parker could go and see a specialist about the extent of the injury.
It was hard to say how bad the injury was, Brown said. But it was believed to be serious and there may be damage to the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee.
Parker has had a wretched run with injury. A long-term shoulder injury forced him out of the season in 2015 when he went under the knife about midway through the Super rugby season.
He went to Japan to help get back to match fitness and won the Japan league title with the Panasonic Wild Knights, and was aiming to have a big year in 2016 for the Highlanders.
He made a few appearances off the bench for the southern franchise at the start of the year but at the end of April had to have an operation after injuring his knee at training. Parker did not play any more rugby last year and was off contract at the end of the season. But he was picked up by the Highlanders and was looking forward to a big season.
That could be over if the injury is as bad as feared.
The injury picked up last year occurred when Parker was just running over a field and it happened again with this latest injury.
It is a surprise for Banks to be back with the Highlanders but Brown said it appeared it did not work out for the player in Italy.
Banks has spent a couple of years at the Highlanders but with Lima Sopoaga in front of him, he had decided to head overseas and had signed with the Treviso club in Italy.
Treviso, though, was struggling in the Pro 12 league and sits second-bottom of that competition.
Brown said Banks was simply an extra player at the moment.
What would happen with him would depend on Parker’s diagnosis.
The other first five-eighth in the squad is Otago pivot Fletcher Smith, who is yet to start a game for the southern franchise and was called in as injury cover last season.
Brown said pre-season training was going well with the representatives from the Maori All Blacks coming back to training on January 9. The All Blacks would join the squad on January 30 and would not play the first pre-season game against the Crusaders in Darfield on February 4.
Meanwhile, Brown said there was nothing in a report earlier this week which linked him with the vacant head coach role at Irish club Connacht.
Irish media said Brown was being pursued to replace Pat Lam at Connacht but Brown said that was news to him.
Brown is set to head to Japan at the end of the Super rugby season to be the assistant coach for the Japan national team, joining former Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph.