Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'This one's unlucky': Hurt Nowell in race to play again this season

By PA
(Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)

Jack Nowell faces a battle to play again this season after sustaining a broken arm in last Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations defeat for England by France. Nowell incurred the damage when falling to the ground after challenging for the ball in the first half of the climax to the championship in Paris and faces up to two months of rehabilitation.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Exeter wing will have the operation alongside a procedure to fix a thumb injury and his future involvement this term hinges on whether the Chiefs reach the knockout phase of the Gallagher Premiership. “Jack has got a broken arm so that is going to be that six to eight week period. He is having that further assessed in more detail today [Thursday],” said director of rugby Rob Baxter after Nowell came back to the club hurt from England duty.  

“He will also be having an operation on thumb ligaments that was impending anyway. He was probably going to hang on until the end of the season to get that done. The recovery time for the two is roughly the same and he will get them done in one go. Jack has got a chance for the end of the season, but really that probably depends on how we go over the next number of weeks.”

Video Spacer

Freddie Steward | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 26

We wrap up the Guinness Six Nations with England fullback Freddie Steward joining the show this week. We get their view on Italy’s historic win against Wales, Scotland’s disappointing performance in Dublin and France’s Grand Slam winning performance in Paris. Freddie tells us about his pre-match rituals, his England bestie, life in student digs, Pennyhill Park and which opposition player impressed him the most in the Six Nations.

Video Spacer

Freddie Steward | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 26

We wrap up the Guinness Six Nations with England fullback Freddie Steward joining the show this week. We get their view on Italy’s historic win against Wales, Scotland’s disappointing performance in Dublin and France’s Grand Slam winning performance in Paris. Freddie tells us about his pre-match rituals, his England bestie, life in student digs, Pennyhill Park and which opposition player impressed him the most in the Six Nations.

It is the latest setback in a career blighted by injury and comes as Nowell was four appearances into his Test return having not played for England since the 2019 World Cup until this Six Nations. “This one in particular you have to say is unlucky because he has been bobbing along this season without too many issues,” Baxter said.

“A broken arm out of the blue is not an alert for overloading or playing with an injury. It’s one of those things and he has just been very unfortunate. He has landed badly and broken his arm. Jack is frustrated because he was clocking some game time this season and playing well for England. But he is a fantastic rehabber and if there is a chance of him coming back before the end of the season, he will.”

Related

England finished third in the Six Nations after suffering three defeats for a second successive year, heaping pressure on head coach Eddie Jones who nonetheless retains the backing of Twickenham bosses. Exeter provided three starters against France and while Baxter admits England have performed poorly in the Six Nations, he is reluctant to provide ultimate judgment. “It’s a difficult one because in a lot of ways you have got to say no (it’s not good enough) because the competition it feeds off – the Premiership – is a great competition,” he said.

“It has produced a number of European champions over the last few years including Saracens and ourselves. You have got to say it should be better but at the same time, you need to know what the bigger picture is and what are the longer-term plans are. Unless you’re party to that, then making a judgement can be tough. But at the same time, I understand people saying England should be doing better.”

ADVERTISEMENT

When asked if the Premiership is producing enough quality players for England to challenge for the Six Nations, Baxter replied: “Oh yeah, without doubt.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 19 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

303 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones
Search