After being rucked in a club game in Owaka last Thursday night, Wilson (27) was taken to Dunedin Hospital and operated on for four and a-half hours.
"I think it was deliberate," Wilson said.
"It was malicious. They pushed hard into my leg with their boot and then pushed the sprig down my leg," he said.
Wilson believes he knows who cut his leg and that a sharpened stud was used.
He now faces months in bed and has been told he will not be able to return to his building job until the end of the year.
Wilson, a fullback for the Crescent senior side, took the ball into a ruck in a match against Owaka just before half-time.
"The ball was way away from me and I was ready to get up when I felt this big ruck mark down my leg," Wilson said.
"It was very, very painful. I saw my muscle and part of my bone hanging out. I was screaming in pain."
Wilson tried to shuffle to the sideline, but he collapsed and the game was stopped.
He then had to wait for more than half an hour for an ambulance.
"I was drifting in and out of being unconscious. I was just trying not to look at it."
Muscle had to be cut away during the operation but it was hoped it would regrow.
Wilson had 17 stitches in his other leg last year when he was also rucked.
Wilson, who has played more than 100 games for Crescent, and also played for Otago Country, said the surgeon who operated on him told him the damage was horrific, especially considering it happened on the rugby field.
His mother, who was not at the game, said she was outraged by the injury.
"It was sickening," Vicky Wilson said.
"I consider it an assault. I'm not stopping here. I want to get a lawyer involved and might take it to court."
Crescent Football Club president Gail Phillips declined to comment on the incident but said the club was working through the process.
Owaka secretary Ashley Mason said he had not heard of any complaint but would be fully co-operative in any investigation.
Rugby studs must be no longer than 21mm. Referee Marthinus Hendriks said he checked the studs by hand before the game and they were all fine. He saw no sign of foul play at the breakdown when Wilson was hurt.
Otago Rugby Football Union amateur rugby manager Justin Gardner said the union would investigate the matter and might refer it to the New Zealand Rugby Union due to the seriousness of the injury.
