Test great Tim Gavin can only sympathise with Benn Robinson after suffering the very same fate as the shattered Wallabies prop in the countdown to the 1991 Rugby World Cup.

Robinson was cruelly ruled out for the rest of the year, including the World Cup in New Zealand in September-October, after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on Tuesday.

Widely considered the premier loosehead prop in international rugby, Robinson not only faces months and months of painful rehabilitation but also the mental torture of having to watch his Australian teammates try to win back the Webb Ellis Cup.

Gavin knows only too well what Robinson will go through, having sustained a season-ending knee injury playing for Sydney's Eastern Suburbs at Concord Oval three months before Australia won the World Cup for the first time at Twickenham.

A month before his own crippling injury, the 47-Test back-rower delivered an utterly dominant performance in Australia's 40-15 trouncing of England at the SFS that was rated by many as one of the finest ever seen by a Wallaby No.8.

Having to sit out the subsequent World Cup was a shattering blow for the then 27-year-old - who was the same age as Robinson turns on Tuesday.

"It's just bad timing, really," Gavin said on Thursday after being announced as a 1990s Classic Wallabies Statesman.

"I was playing a club game, a simple tackle and hurt my knee.

"Benn training (on Tuesday) obviously something simple happened apparently. He twisted his knee and hurt it.

"So it is devastating, just bad timing. Hopefully he's got a bit more football left ahead of him to have another chance down the track.

"I guess all players playing the game at that level would have had a serious injury at some time in their career that kept them out for quite a period of time.

"It's sad, but that's (part of) playing at that level in a contact sport."

Gavin urged Robinson to stay positive and hoped he could savour a similar comeback as he experienced in 1992.

"I was just extremely happy to get back to the level I was playing at at the time I did the knee and to play for the Wallabies again," he said.

"It's such a super team and I just wanted to be back playing with my mates and enjoying my rugby again.

"It would have been terrible for my life had it been a career-ending injury.

"That's what he's got to look forward to - getting back into that team."

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