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'That is the hope': Gloucester shed light on the Jonny May injury
By Liam Heagney
Gloucester boss George Skivington has claimed he is in the dark for now as to the exact severity of the knee injury that this week ruled Jonny May out of the England squad that has assembled in Brighton to prepare for the February 5 start of the Guinness Six Nations away to Scotland.
The seasoned winger was replaced in the 36-strong squad on Monday by Saracens’ Elliot Daly but with little detail about the injury provided by the RFU, it was left to club coach Skivington to pick up the thread at his media briefing on Tuesday.
“We don’t know yet because he is seeing some people this week,” said Skivington when asked as to what the likely recovery timeframe is for May. “It definitely will be a good couple of weeks but once we get all the information in front of us we will get to the bottom of it and as soon as we know the timescale, I don’t think it will be secret.
“That is the hope but again, he is off seeing people,” added Skivinngton regarding his player’s hopes of getting back in with England before the end of the Six Nations in mid-March. “I haven’t seen Jonny for a few days since he has been diagnosed, so he is off seeing the best of the best and he will get a plan in place for whatever timescale that is.
“He has had a niggle for a little while and it kept him out of one game a few weeks ago. It has been chipping away and it got to the point where it wasn’t great and it was, ‘Let’s just get this investigated’. I couldn’t actually tell you when it was (the injury happened), but it has been there a little while.
“Once we know exactly what the story is with it we will have a better idea... He has been managing his way through it [the injury] as senior players do generally speaking and it just got a little bit too much and he felt it needed to be checked out.
“We decided not to play him last week because at the back end (of the week) we said, ‘Let’s investigate this’,” continued Skivington, who has no fears that once a rehabilitation plan is decided May will tackle it with his usual perfection.
“There is not too many who are going to nail their rehab like Jonny May. He is on it every day anyway when he is fully fit and doing all his pre-hab and all the rest of it, so I have no concerns there whenever he can come back. Whatever the timescale is, he will be absolutely flying.
“We planned for not having Jonny here (at Gloucester during the Six Nations) anyway and once they have assessed how bad his injury is and that sort of thing if he can get back involved in the Six Nations great, but from our point of view we weren’t expecting to have him.
"It’s unfortunate for him definitely. We’d like him to be playing for England, our plans were to be without him anyway.”
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I’m looking forward to attending the Twickenham match, I don’t think it will have a bearing on the outcome of the grand prize itself but it will tell us more about each teams’ preparation and game plan. It’s hard to look past one of the big four (I’m including Canada) lifting the trophy in 2025 but sport is a curious thing, there will still be twists and turns in road ahead.
Go to commentsThe better side seems to be the losing side a lot these days. As far as narrative goes. Must be the big emergent culture of “participation awards” that have emerged in nanny states. ”It looked like New Zealand would take the game from there but lapses in execution let South Africa get back into the game. New Zealand’s goal kickers left five points out there, including a very make-able penalty on the stroke of half”. Sounds like a chronic problem… I wonder how the better team has lapses in concentration and execution? Or are those not important factors in the grand scheme of total performances? In 2023, the ABs at least didn’t give up a lead to lose. They just couldn’t execute to get the points and take the lead. This Baby AB result points to a choke - letting the game slip through your fingers. In the words of the great Ricky Bobby’s dad - “If you’re not 1st you’re last!” Loosely translated - if you didn’t win, you’re a loser.
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