Bristol Bears fly-half Callum Sheedy has been told to have the summer off and hit the ‘reset button’ by Wales head coach Wayne Pivac.
Sheedy, 26, has 16 caps for Wales and featured three times off the bench during the 2022 Guinness Six Nations however men’s head coach Wayne Pivac has opted to leave him out of the summer tour to South Africa.
Instead, Pivac has opted to take Northampton Saints’ Dan Biggar, who has also been named captain once again, along with Osprey’s Gareth Anscombe and Scarlets’ Rhys Patchell as his stand-off options as part of a 33-player squad for the three-Test Series against the Springboks in July
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Asked by BBC Scrum 5 why Sheedy had been left out this summer having been an apparent favourite of the New Zealander, Pivac explained: "Callum's coming off a shoulder injury.
“Going to South Africa, there is no hiding anybody defensively. A lot of big men are going to come down that channel. We've asked Callum to go back, work, get himself back to 100 percent fitness, get himself into the gym.
“Pat Lam [Bristol Bears director of rugby] is across what he needs to do so there's been some good discussions there.
“Stephen [Jones, Wales; attack coach] had a good chat with Callum.
“He'll have the off-season to hit the re-set button, if you like, and come back out and push for the autumn like a lot of players."
Despite talk of a shoulder issue, Sheedy has been named to start against Exeter Chiefs on Friday night in Round 25 of the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership and Bristol Live understand the Welshman has been playing with the minor ‘niggle’ for most of the season without it impacting his game.
In the Premiership this year, according to the league’s official stats, Sheedy’s defence is justifiably an area that could be improved with just a 71 percent tackle success rate, while his Wales rival Biggar has made 87 percent of his tackles this season.
The holiday part of the off-season is going to be relatively short for the Bears squad with the players set to return to the first day of pre-season on July 4, although they will likely have further chunks of time off before the season ramps up back in September.
