After Steven Luatua’s wrist injury in the defeat by Harlequins, the Bristol Bears hope Steven Luatua will be back before the season ends.
After scoring a try, Flanker was replaced by captain Luatua. 29-38 loss.
Sam Jeffries, third-row partner, was similarly replaced shortly after scoring early. He had a knee injury.
Conor McPhillips, the assistant coach of Bristol Bears, said that both would be back before the season ends.
“It’s just working with the doctors exactly when it is.
“I think we were initially worried. But, I believe there was good news within the bad news.”
Jeffries was forced to take a break in 2019 due to a long-term knee injury. McPhillips however confirmed that this incident wasn’t related.
It was almost like an impact injury. As he was scoring, a man fell on his leg, and it went in a direction it didn’t want.
He said that Sam was actually a little more up and running this past week, so it’s not nearly as bad as I first feared. However, I can’t give an exact timeframe.
Bristol will face West Country rivals Bath in the Premiership Rugby Cup on March 18th. They are currently without a lot of players, especially at scrum-half, due to injury.
Max Green, who had signed on a loan from Bath in February, made his debut for Bristol as number nine against Quins.
McPhillips confirmed that Green would feature against his parent club. Bath could field Nathan Hughes, the number eight loanee from Bristol, in place of Green.
“I believe it’s likely to be beneficial for both clubs. The loan players go out to play. McPhillips stated that Nathan and Max will get the chance to play this weekend between clubs.
“That’s always the deal with both sides. We can call Nathan and Bath Max back if they need Max. It is even more advantageous that Max and Nathan are playing simultaneously, so if they call back, they’re ready for anything.”