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England's Tom Curry drops out of Australia tour
By PA
England’s hopes of levelling their series against Australia have suffered a blow after Tom Curry was ruled out of the last two Tests because of concussion.
Curry is to return home with the head injury sustained in the first half of Saturday’s 30-28 defeat in Perth and will face “continuing assessment and ongoing management”.
The Sale flanker was stood down after an HIA and the Rugby Football Union says that the decision to withdraw him from the tour is in the “interest of player welfare and recovery”.
Curry’s head whipped backwards while tackling Wallabies centre Samu Kerevi in the 14th minute and despite the heavy blow, he completed the half.
It was when the 2019 world player of the year nominee presented with concussion symptoms at the interval that he was sent for an HIA and failed to appear for the second half.
No decision has yet been made on whether he will be replaced in the 36-man touring party.
Under new guidelines, players with a history of concussion or who are removed from a match with obvious concussion symptoms face a minimum mandatory stand down period of 12 days.
Curry fits the second of these criteria meaning he would have missed at least the second Test, which takes place in Brisbane on Saturday.
He was withdrawn from half-time of the 23-19 victory over Wales on February 26 due to concussion but was cleared to face Ireland a fortnight later before being ruled out against France because of a hamstring issue.
Lewis Ludlam made an impact as Curry’s replacement at Optus Stadium and is the leading contender to replace him, while Sam Underhill and Jack Willis are also options at openside.
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Latest Comments
I think we need to get innovative with the new laws.
Now red cards are only 20 minutes, Razor should send Finau on a head hunting mission to hospitalise their 10 with a shoulder to the chops.
Give the conspiracy theorists a win.
Go to commentsEngland played well enough to win but couldnt score when they needed to and couldnt defend a couple of X-Factor moments from Telea which was ultimately the difference. They needed to hold the ball more and make the AB's make more tackles. Territorially they were good for the first 60. Defending their lead and playing pragmatic rugby in the last 20 was silly. The AB's always had the potential to come back. England still have a long way to go, definite progress would have been shown had they won but it seems they are still stuck where they were shortly after the six nations and their tour to NZ
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