A childhood brain tumour prevented him from taking the field, aside from a handful of social games as a teenager.
So video games became his salvation.
The 30-year-old former Dunedin man estimates he has played 10,000 hours of virtual rugby — or as they would say these days, e-rugby.
On Saturday he will take that a step further.
Carse is one of 23 New Zealanders who will line up for the Alt Blacks in their inaugural game against South Africa.
An e-rugby team, over 1000 New Zealanders applied to have themselves created as part of the team, which will be controlled by injured All Black Jack Goodhue and professional gamer Jordan Tini.
The final team was chosen by former All Blacks coach Graeme Henry and was created on Rugby Challenge 4.
‘‘It’s pretty cool,’’ Carse said.
‘‘It’s kind of like making the All Blacks, really. You’ve more or less been put into the video game, you’re there and you can put yourself into any team you want.’’
Carse relocated to Waiheke Island five months ago and works as a chef.
However, the extended lockdown in Auckland has meant he had plenty of time to be playing Rugby Challenge 4.
It was the latest rugby video game, something Carse always ensures he has.
His video game journey began in 1998, when he would watch his cousins playing Jonah Lomu Rugby.
From there he would update as each new game was released, including his all time favourite, Rugby 08.
Through the early stages of that he overcame a brain tumour, which was diagnosed in 1999.
It effectively ended his rugby career at the age of 5, having played a season for Southbridge while living in Christchurch for a year.
He underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and had surgery.
By 2003 he was cured and at 15 had been completely cleared of it.
At that point, he decided to play three games for his friend’s university social team.
He had enjoyed it, although felt he was a bit small and stuck to touch after that.
Carse was looking forward to watching the game on Saturday, expecting to come on in the outside backs at some point.
