1
Exeter and England suffer injury blow as Simmonds' long-term layoff confirmed
By Russell Greaves
Exeter and England forward Sam Simmonds is set for at least six months out after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament.
Simmonds suffered the setback in Exeter Chiefs' 28-11 Premiership win over Worcester Warriors last weekend, with the extent of his injury revealed on Wednesday by director of rugby Rob Baxter.
The news comes a little under a year before the Rugby World Cup in Japan and rules Simmonds, who has seven international caps, out of the 2019 Six Nations.
"Sam Simmonds has ruptured his ACL. He's going to go for a reconstruction, so that's going to be six months onwards," said Baxter.
"The only thing I can say to Sam with any certainty is, he's a young player and the reality now – with all the talk of player welfare and the number of games you can play – the one thing is he's not going to be playing any games for the next six months.
"Who knows what's going to happen to the back-row resources between now and the World Cup? The other guys are going to be playing – they are the guys who are more likely to be picking up injuries than Sam.
"Also, he's a young guy – a six-month break now at this time in his career, he's got a really good break now. He's got an opportunity of getting really mentally and physically fresh for what might be a fantastic two or three years for him after this injury.
"Yes, he's going to miss out on some big games now, but you'd hope that those big games can get added to the end of his career because he's not taking the battering now."
Simmonds has been a big part of Exeter's pack, helping the side to an undefeated start to the season in their first five matches, just one competition point behind defending champions Saracens.
In other news:
Trending on RugbyPass
2
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
3
Let's be real about these All Blacks
4
Why World Cup winner doesn’t blame All Black for leaving New Zealand
5
Latest Comments
Thanks Nick. Surely they will thump Japan this week and the pressure will be off. Do you want to make a prediction that the defence coach will go before the Six Nations? England seem to want Borthwick there for a long time so surely they will back Bortho and look for a new defence coach?
Go to commentsYes, Carlos, I sensed before hand this would be a very close game, even could see an Arg. win....well, they have beaten all their three SH compatriots this year, then added Italy. And as nick says below, they were winners of the breakdown for a lot of the game, and both sides of the ball too.
Felipe very highly regarded in Ireland, esp. Leinster.
Good luck this weekend !
Go to comments