Injury woes add to challenge of Wasps
Fifty per cent of the Bath Rugby squad are either injured or unavailable, director of rugby Stuart Hooper has confirmed.
Having lost five from five to start the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership season, a cascade of injuries looks set to further hinder Bath’s chances of climbing off the foot of the table this weekend with Wasps Rugby coming to The Rec.
Taking to Somersetlive in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Hooper said: “We have a significant number of injuries at the moment.
“We have a squad of 58/59 players including our academy and at the moment we are working with only about 50 percent of that group because of injuries and international call-ups. We are operating at about 50 percent, that is a significant number of people unavailable to play. Some of those are shortterm, some of them long-term.”
Amongst the short-term injured are Will Muir and Josh Bayliss who have soft issue injuries, while longterm absentees include the likes of Anthony Watson (knee), Cam Redpath (knee) and Joe Cokanasiga (knee) and Tian Schoeman (knee).
Now England loosehead prop Beno Obano looks set to be the latest international facing a significant spell on the sidelines with a knee injury after his leg buckleed from under him in the 31-17 defeat to Harlequins on Saturday.
Hooper said: “He has definitely got a significant knee injury.
“He has had a scan and we are just waiting for reports on it and have got a specialist opinion.”
With so many players injured, Bath Rugby are understood to be releasing a more detailed injury update on Friday.
On Saturday the Blue, Black and White also lost full-back Tom de Glanville to a knee knock from the airborne tackle that saw Joe Marler yellow-carded while scrum-half Joe Simpson and number eight Jaco Coetzee both suffered concussions
Providing an update on the trio, Hooper said: “It is slightly more positive
“Tom de Glanville had a nasty collision, amazingly his head and neck are fine, luckily, but he got hit on the knee in the process of that so it is a collision injury rather than anything else.
“We are getting a bit of a view on that but it is more positive for him and he could be on his feet again this week.
Hooper added: “Jaco was an immediate removal from a head knock so he is off and in the GRTP [Graduated Return to Play] process and we will make sure we do the right thing by him. Joe Simpson is the same situation.”
The good news is former England scrum-half Ben Spencer is closing in on a return from the hamstring injury he suffered on the opening day of the league campaign although Ollie Fox and Max Green will likely be competing for the number nine jersey this week.
Hooper said: “Ben Spencer is up and running and has done bits and pieces of team training as well.
“He is not there yet but he is not far away.”
Bath are without their England contingent of Sam Underhill, Charlie Ewels and Will Stuart this weekend as the trio have linked up with Eddie Jones in Jersey for a training camp ahead of the Autumn internationals.
That means Hooper is looking short of options in the second row with just Josh Mcnally and Mike Williams the other senior locks who have played this season but the Bath director of rugby confirmed lock Will Spencer is closing in on a return from a calf injury that has kept him out until now.
Hooper said: “Will Spencer is not too far away, he is up and running.
“He is not in full in training yet but he is up and running and is not too far away from playing.
“He is close and absolutely itching to get back playing.
“We have got Ewan Richards as well who played for us last year, had an unbelievable summer when he was named players’ player of the tournament for the U20s Six Nations and I am excited he might get himself an opportunity soon.”
The Blue, Black and White will technically be able to call upon backrowers Bayliss (Scotland) and Taulupe Faletau (Wales) this weekend for a final time before the Autumn international window, however, both men come into the match with injuries.
Bath are certainly not alone in their injury struggles with Wasps decimated as well, heading into last weekend’s 56-16 defeat to Saracens without 16 players out in Charlie Atkinson, Alfie Barbeary, Malakai Fekitoa, Dan Frost, James Gaskell, Ben Harris, Joe Launchbury, Michael Le Bourgeois, Rob Miller, Ryan Mills, Paolo Odogwu, Gabriel Oghre, Dan Robson, Sam Spink, Theo Vukasinovic and Jack Willis.
Then on Sunday they lost a further four players with centre Will Simonds suffering a knee injury on his debut, losing hooker Tom Cruse to a head injury for his second successive match, backrower Ben Morris to a hamstring injury and loosehead prop Ben Harris to a bulging disc in his back.
Team news at midday on Friday is certainly going to be worth looking out for.