Dane Coles is about a fortnight away from playing provincial rugby

The oft-injured hooker is about a fortnight away from a return to provincial rugby which, fingers crossed, will mean the immediate resumption of active duty for the All Blacks, writes Stuff.co.nz.

A knee injury has sidelined the 31-year-old all season, but the months of frustration are almost at an end.

It's understood he'll make three provincial appearances, starting in mid-September, which would put him on track for New Zealand's two matches in Yokohama (against Australia on October 27) and Tokyo (against Japan on November 3), ahead of tests in London, Dublin and Rome. 

"He's doing a lot of intense running and obviously weights and lifting and throwing and becoming more involved in our trainings. But we've tried to put some real intensity and high-level work into him, to get his body back to taking the running," All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said on Tuesday.

"This is the exciting part because he can start to see it coming together," continued Hansen.

"He's worked really hard and I said to him the other day 'you're back son. You've got a twinkle in your eye, you're excited' and he's like a kid with a brand new toy, which is great. Mentally he's in the right place and now we've just go to get him physically finished and he's into it."

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