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Exeter update leaves Simmonds the latest doubt for England tour
By Liam Heagney
Exeter are still awaiting feedback before reaching a decision on the best treatment for the injury that has sidelined Sam Simmonds and made him a doubt for the England tour of Australia in July. It was last Friday, when the back-rower’s name was absent from the Chiefs’ team sheet for their European game at Munster, that it first emerged there was something up with the 27-year-old.
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Having played five times for England during their recent Guinness Six Nations campaign, three of those appearances coming as the starting No8, Simmonds returned to Exeter to play the full 80 minutes of both their Gallagher Premiership clash with Leicester and the first leg of their round of 16 Heineken Champions Cup tie with Munster.
There was no inkling that there was an underlying injury problem, but the situation became public last weekend with Simmonds was left to join the Jack Nowell stag do entourage in the stands in Limerick last Saturday afternoon rather than take any part in the match.
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In the aftermath of Exeter’s elimination from Europe, Baxter initially emitted optimism that Simmonds could potentially make it back and play before the end of the Premiership season. “It’s a hip/groin, a combination of a few things. He is sore, he is struggling to train really and that is the problem,” he explained post-game last Saturday.
“We can get him on the field but he is very limited training which fitness-wise and performance-wise, he is kind of on that downward spiral until we can sort this issue out. We are investigating that now, he will see the specialist this week but with all the scans and things, we are hopeful we will see him before the end of the season.”
Baxter sounded less hopeful, though, five days later when he held his weekly media briefing ahead of this Sunday’s trip to arch-rivals Saracens. “We are still monitoring it,” he explained. “There are some treatment options, a lot more is going to be known this week. It doesn’t necessarily need to be season over for him but we just need to assess everything correctly.”
Asked if Simmonds was now a doubt for the three-Test England series in Australia, Baxter added: “Without him getting all the consultants’ feedback, it’s at what level they think any intervention is required at this stage. So I don’t want to say he will definitely be back for England and I don’t want to say he will definitely be back for us at the end of the season because I don’t think it is as simple a prognosis as that.”
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Baxter’s inconclusive update means that Simmonds has become the second forward this week to become a doubt for the England tour which begins in Perth on July 2 as Northampton were unable to offer a definitive timeline regarding the dislocated thumb injury suffered by Courtney Lawes where the bone, according to director of rugby Chris Boyd, came out through the skin.
