Surgery pushes Pocock's Brumbies return back three months
David Pocock's return to the Brumbies will have to wait another three months after he underwent knee surgery ahead of the new Super Rugby season.
Australia international Pocock skipped the previous campaign to take a sabbatical, though he did feature in the Wallabies' last set of internationals at the end of 2017.
The back-row forward complained of an injury upon his return to the Brumbies from his second season in Japan's Top League, where he finished as a runner-up with Panasonic Wild Knights.
An operation was required and Pocock could miss the Canberra franchise's opening eight Super Rugby matches.
"Upon David Pocock's return from playing in Japan he sought advice for a complaint with his knee," read a Brumbies statement.
"Following consultation with his orthopaedic surgeon, the Brumbies and David were informed that it would be in the best interest of both parties that he underwent a minor operative procedure.
"The surgery took place [on] Saturday 20 January, and identified damage to his meniscus. His timeline for return to play is up to three months.
"After appropriate post-operative rehabilitation, David is expected to make a full recovery."
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I’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.
Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
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