Crusaders fullback David Havili has revealed how his rugby career came close to ending

Crusaders fullback David Havili has revealed how he came dramatically close to having his rugby career ended by a bowel infection.

Having been in career-best form, Havili went under the knife last month just hours after he first started feeling ill at training.

He says if the infection had spread to most of his bowel and to anywhere else, they probably would have had to remove his whole bowel and potentially use a bag for the rest of his life.

Instead, he’s now missing 20cm of his bowel where the infection was.

The dramatic events saw him laid up in Christchurch Hospital for a week, although he didn’t feel too far from home, with partner Lucy working a ward over as a nurse.