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Gloucester No8 Zach Mercer sweating over verdict of scan on ankle injury
By Chris Jones
Zach Mercer will discover in the next 24 hours if the impressive start to his Gloucester career in the Gallagher Premiership has been halted by an ankle injury sustained in the 24-3 home defeat by Saracens.
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England international Mercer, who has joined the club from Montpellier where he had won the Top 14 Player of the Season award during his impressive period in France, carried the ball 44 times in Gloucester’s opening season victories over Newcastle and Harlequins. He came close to scoring a try against Saracens but lost the ball going over the line and also picked up the injury that will now undergo a scan to determine the extent of the injury.
George Skivington, the Gloucester director of rugby, admits his lack of knowledge of Mercer’s injury history makes it difficult to guess the possible outcome and said: “The honest truth about Zach’s injury is that we just don’t know. We are investigating it and it is harder with a new player because you don’t have a track record to bounce off. We will know in the next 24-36 hours after a scan on the ankle. The injury needed to settle down and then we will find out. Zach is a very positive guy and bounces around and he doesn’t get down beat about anything.
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“I am not getting flustered by the injuries in the squad and we are getting players back soon, including Ruan Ackermann (shoulder and neck) who I spoke to today about his injury progress.”
Despite injury worries, Skivington will not be following other Premiership clubs who have already brought back their World Cup players. England wing Jonny May and the Argentine trio of Matias Alemanno, Mayco Vivas and Santiago Carreras have been given time to recover from their knock out rugby at the tournament. Fiji’s Albert Tuisue is already back and will fill the void created by Mercer’s injury when they travel to Sale on Friday night.
Skivington added: “We are not bringing our World Cup players straight in and will give them some time with their families. I am aware most clubs are chucking everyone back in (to the Premiership games) but our guys will get a rest. There is lots of stuff I will get right and wrong this season and other people will get right or wrong. The World Cup is long campaign and I just wanted to give our guys the chance to see their loved ones and come back in fully charged.
“Jonny has announced his international retirement and he has been consistently good for England for a long time and you have to say well done. Jonny has been in and out for all the time I have been here and ironically we won’t clash with Six Nations this season but he will be in the building all the time.
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“We made seven line breaks against Saracens and as a stats game you would ask how did we lose. We got held up three times and the line out didn’t function and the finishing accuracy wasn’t good enough. Sale lost at Exeter but we know they will be very physical and deserved to reach the final last season.”
