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England issue update on the status of Max Malins' shoulder injury
By
Liam Heagney
Max Malins has, as expected, been ruled out of the England squad for the second Test of their summer series next Saturday at Twickenham versus Canada. The back was replaced by Jacob Umaga just ten minutes into last Sunday’s 43-29 win over the USA.
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An RFU statement on Wednesday read: “Max Malins has withdrawn from the England squad after suffering a shoulder ligament injury in last week’s game against the USA. Malins will see a specialist later this week to further assess the injury. Eddie Jones will not call up a replacement player.”
England boss Eddie Jones had anticipated as early as his post-match media briefing last Sunday that Malins wouldn’t be in the running to face the Canadians.
“Malins has an AC joint injury, so he will probably be out for a couple of weeks but that is just an estimate,” said Jones, who had sung the praises of Malins leading into a match where he was chosen to start on the wing having featured at full-back in the recent Guinness Six Nations. The No15 jersey against the USA was filled by the debut-making Freddie Steward.
“A long time ago when I coached the Brumbies we used to have Joe Roff and Andrew Walker and they played full-back and wing and they were the best attacking combination I have ever seen because they interchanged all the time,” enthused Jones last week.
Eddie put plenty of topspin on England's outing at HQ #ENGvUSA https://t.co/KKD9ZZgUip
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 4, 2021
“The defence never knew what was coming to them and with Max on the wing, it gives us two full-backs and allows him to play a completely roving role. I expect his attacking instincts to be even sharper from the wing than it has been from full-back.
“We know he can play full-back and we are not discounting that he won’t play full-back in the future, but I feel we can get a lot out of him as a roving winger who can go all over the field and just find the opportunity to attack.”
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An innocuous question about Max Malins' positional flexibility with England had Eddie Jones rolling back the years #ENGvUSAhttps://t.co/1DQq4xUgpL
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 3, 2021
