MATA INJURED AGAIN
EDINBURGH - Edinburgh have been hit with a huge blow ahead of the new Guinness PRO14 season after Fiji star Bill Mata was ruled out for up to eight weeks. The 28-yearold faces surgery this week after damaging ankle ligaments during his side's European Challenge Cup quarter-final loss to Bordeaux last week.
He will now be missing as Richard Cockerill's team kick off the season against Ospreys at Murrayfield on Saturday. And Mata is also likely to be absent when Fiji visit Edinburgh in late November as part of the new Autumn Nations Cup tournament.
Confirming the news, Cockerill – who hopes star wing Duhan van der Merwe will be fit to face Ospreys but is still waiting for scrum-half Henry Pyrgos to shake off a concussion – said: "Bill Mata will have surgery on his ankle on Thursday to repair a ligament.
"He will probably be six to eight weeks with that, meaning he will miss the first two rounds of the PRO14 with us then the international period with Fiji. Once he has surgery we'll know more. It may be shorter, it may be longer but roughly it will be six to eight weeks.
Losing Mata for such a lengthy period would be bad enough during the best of times but Cockerill admits he will be unable to bring in fresh recruits as Scottish rugby's coronavirus crisis deepens. New restrictions on fans attending sporting events mean the autumn Tests and next year's Six Nations are set to be played behind closed doors. ■