Wilkinson faces long lay-off with injury

Wyn Griffiths
Tuesday 26 November 2002 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Jonny Wilkinson faces several weeks out following Saturday's brutal game against South Africa, but there was better news for his team-mate Jason Robinson. Wilkinson, England's fly-half, damaged his shoulder in the challenge for which Jannes Labuschagne was sent off, and was due to undergo further medical tests yesterday.

Robinson was also seen by a specialist yesterday, in his case to examine the perforated ear drum he suffered against the Springboks, and he has been referred for a hearing test. But the Sale full-back may well be back for his club for their Premiership game against Bath on Friday.

Over in South Africa, as the Springboks arrived home, an unrepentant national captain Corne Krige said yesterday he did not regard England very highly. "I do not rate them that much," Krige said on arriving home following the Springboks' record 53-3 defeat at Twickenham on Saturday. "I think they can be taken."

The South Africa coach, Rudolf Straeuli, was less bullish, promising that there would be casualties from his side's tour of Europe and revealing that a number of players had played themselves out of World Cup contention. "I won't go into names, but there are guys that failed who can now be removed from the planning," he said. "I brought players here to look at them, to see if they had what it takes and I left other players at home because I wanted them to recover from injuries. The World Cup can be our only focus." Straeuli will name a 45-man World Cup squad within weeks, hinting at which players could fall by the wayside.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in