Manu Tuilagi to miss the start of England's Six Nations campaign
Manu Tuilagi has suffered another significant injury and will miss the start of England’s Six Nations campaign while Sale Sharks team mate Bevan Rodd has been ruled out of the entire championship following surgery on his toe.
Alex Sanderson, the Sale director of rugby, revealed that Tuilagi suffered a grade three tear in the groin area against Saracens and is facing up to six weeks out of the game although the Sharks boss is confident the centre, whose career has been hampered by injury, will be back during the Six Nations.
The news on England prop Rodd is not as good with what appeared to be a ligament issue in his big toe requiring surgery that will keep him out of the championship.
This is a double blow for Steve Borthwick, the England coach, who had seen both players impress as Sale climbed up the Premiership table and it means he will have to make adjustments to his first squad that will be named at the start of January for the Six Nations campaign.
Sanderson said: “Manu has pulled his groin and doesn’t need an operation and we think he will be back during the Six Nations but not for the first week of it. He has suffered a grade linear muscle tear of an adductor in the groin. Grade 4 is serious and Grade 2 is not so serious and so it is somewhere in between.
"The Six Nations is not too far away and he will be back. I spoke to him and he said he needs to play and then it will be up to England. He was in the frame and he has already stated is intent to keep playing international rugby.
“Six weeks is the recommended time for the injury and Manu is saying four. I haven’t been told it’s a recurring injury and he has had issues with his hamstring in the past and it is all connected with the pelvic girdle. There was no indications on the field and he just felt it early in the second half and is that aware of his body that he called over the physio and said something has gone here. He is a little bit wiser.
“I am happy that if anyone can stay in that happy frame of mind it is Manu and he is already future focussed about getting back on the field.
"Bevan has been operated on and he won’t be back until post Six Nations.”
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Don’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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