“I will ask the medical staff to take as long as they need to try to get him back into shape as quickly as they can.”
So said former England football manager Roy Hodgson back in the day, crossing a few words as he did so, but every team boss down the ages will understand the sentiment, including Warren Gatland in his capacity as Wales rugby head coach today.
The seasoned Gatland will not need telling that injuries can ruin campaigns. So it’s to be assumed that he won’t be particularly pleased with having to confront one of the biggest new year hangovers he has known, involving fitness concerns covering around 20 leading players just weeks before the naming of his squad for the 2023 Six Nations.
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Louis Rees-Zammit joined the list when he picked up an ankle injury while playing for Gloucester in their 8-6 defeat of London Irish on New Year’s Eve.
The words of his club coach weren’t exactly guaranteed to aid Gatland’s sleep heading into 2023, with George Skivington saying the electric-heeled wing would be out for a spell that “could range from two weeks to six months”. On that basis, said Skivington, Rees-Zammit could be joining the Six Nations late.
Make that beyond late if his injury is of the six-month variety. Let’s hope it won’t prove anywhere near as serious.
Twenty-four hours later Ospreys hooker Sam Parry left the field clutching his right shoulder in his team’s derby against Cardiff at the Arms Park. True, there are plenty of other No. 2s at Gatland’s disposal, but five-cap Parry has been in form, starting of late for his region. Depth matters, and both the Ospreys and Wales will await news on the extent of his injury.
Those two were the latest to fall victims to orthopaedic issues.
Some had lines crossed through their names for the Six Nations weeks ago, among them last term’s Welsh player of the year, Will Rowlands, who isn’t due back from his shoulder problem until April.
Then there’s Gareth Anscombe, looking well enough on punditry duty at the Cardiff v Ospreys game but facing a layoff which could extend into the summer as he battles a shoulder bump picked up playing for Wales against Australia in November. More than three and a half years after joining the Ospreys, he has made just 16 appearances for them. Talk about bad luck.
Gatland would never have held out much hope that Samson Lee would be back from his long-term Achilles tendon injury, with the Scarlets having seemingly vexed the rugby gods in another life, so ill is his fortune.
Josh Navidi? Now, he is a player the Wales coach would have hopes for, with the gritty Cardiff man having proven a Gatland favourite in the past. But it's been a constant struggle to stay fit.
Maybe it’s the way he plays which causes him so many problems, with the back rower seemingly spending most of his time on the pitch in harm’s way. It is a way of doing things that has led many to view him as the ultimate team man, so many unglamorous jobs does he take on, but injuries follow him around. His latest one is a neck problem which has sidelined him so far this season. In November, Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young reported that Navidi could be back in the first half of January. Fingers crossed, then.
His clubmate Willis Halaholo has been ruled out "until the back-end of the Six Nations" by a hamstring problem, while James Botham and Rhys Priestland were unavailable for Cardiff’s game against the Ospreys.
Gatland might be particularly disappointed to see another Arms Park player, Max Llewellyn, off limits. With his ability to pick sharp angles and rocket through tackles, the 6ft 5in, 16st 7lb centre is the type of midfield man who ticks the right boxes for Wales’ head coach. Not only does he have speed and size, he also has skill: the three key areas the New Zealander looks for in players. For him to be sidelined, then, is untimely. Cardiff said on December 21 he could be out for 10-12 weeks with an ankle problem. Although recoveries from injuries can never be considered a precise science, Llewellyn looks short of time to make it back and regain match fitness. Still, he’s one for the future.
Dillon Lewis is very much one for the present, but he’s likely to be out of action until late January with a knee injury. How big a blow is that? Well, Lewis has started seven out of Wales’ last eight matches. Enough said.
The Scarlets were without Johnny Williams, Wyn Jones, Tom Rogers, Josh Macleod, Sam Costelow and Lee for their game with the Dragons at the weekend, with some of the injuries more serious than others.
At the Ospreys, Dan Lydiate (broken arm) and Owen Watkin (knee) are in the sickbay, while Rhodri Jones was unavailable for the Dragons’ date in Llanelli against the Scarlets and Ben Carter faces a race to be fit for the start of the Six Nations, because of an ankle problem.
How to deal with injuries is a challenge every coach faces. Most just press the optimism button in public and suggest every bump is a chance for someone else to step in.
They are right, of course, but sometimes the scale of the problem can be worrying. Gatland, then, will hope his current concerns start easing, and quickly.
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