North will join fellow shoulder injury victim Shane Williams on the sidelines for the start of the Six Nations, while first-choice full-back Lee Byrne will be out until after Christmas with a broken thumb.

And Scarlets coach Nigel Davies admitted he was concerned that North had been given the nod to face the All Blacks despite his injury.

"There's a little bit of frustration," said Davies.

"But we need to work together moving forward and we need to be able to manage these situations better.

"The original injury happened against Fiji, and he was deemed fit to play against New Zealand, which he duly did.

"Unfortunately, George has done some serious damage to his shoulder.

"When he returned here, our physios looked at him and we were a little bit concerned at the extent of the injury.

"He was then scanned and it became clear that it was a lot more serious than originally thought.

"The danger was that if it was left as it was, he could have dislocated it.

"We had to react to that, so he's been operated on, which will secure his shoulder."