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Mixed injury news for England duo ahead of Premiership matches
By Online Editors
It's been a long time coming, but England centre Ben Te’o will make his first start of the season for Worcester Warriors in their Gallagher Premiership match against Saracens at Allianz Park on Saturday.
A combination of injury and international commitments have restricted Te’o to just one Worcester appearance so far this season, as a replacement in the European Challenge Cup win over Ospreys in October. However, Te'o did feature in three of England's four November internationals.
Te’o will form a new centre pairing with Francois Venter as Ryan Mills suffered a wrist injury against Northampton Saints last week and he will miss his first Premiership match this season.
Te'o, who reportedly earns in the region of £350,000 per year, has only made 25 appearances for Worcester since he joined the club from Leinster in 2016.
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Saracens had hoped to have Billy Vunipola back in time for the Worcester match with the club stating at the start of the month that he'd be back for Rounds 11-12 of the Gallagher Premiership, but the England number 8 hasn't managed to recover. The next target is the game against Sale on January 4th at the AJ Bell Stadium, as he looks to prove his fitness and form ahead of the Six Nations.
2018 has been a year to forget for Vunipola, he broke his right arm against the Ospreys in January and suffered the same injury again on England’s summer tour to South Africa and had a plate inserted to try and solve the problem. He then broke his left in October against the Glasgow Warriors.
Maro Itoje is still out with his chipped patella in his knee, while Liam Williams, Jackson Wray, Richard Wigglesworth and Mike Rhodes are all also absent through injury for Saturday's match.
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You'd swear they didn't win 28-7 away from home....
Go to commentsMcKenzie is better than Barrett , but not better than Richie Mo'unga. Richie regularly outplayed DMac in Super Rugby. , as he did in the 2023 Final in Hamilton. I remember the 2021 Aotearoa Super Rugby Final here in CHCH. Mo'unga took him to the cleaners. McKenzie is a fine footballer , but at best a hybrid 10 . Fergus Burke , ( now playing in England ), who made a big difference when he came back late in the Crusaders season , is a better 10 than DMac. I also think 140 game + Crusader Matt Todd was always a better no 7 than Sam Cane.A big part of 3 title winning teams when South African teams were still in the comp. How many titles did the Chiefs win in that period of time?
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