Sinckler on course to make comeback from injury in semi-final
KYLE Sinckler, Bristol’s first British & Irish Lions player since 1997, will not be fit to face London Irish this weekend but will be ready for the ‘knockout’ rugby to come.
Sinckler, pictured, got his call-up to the Lions squad from head coach Warren Gatland on Sunday, coming in for injured Ireland and Leinster tighthead prop Andrew Porter.
However, Sinckler suffered a minor hamstring tear in training on Thursday and missed Bristol Bears’ 26-23 win at Leicester Tigers on Saturday.
Discussing the injury situation with Sinckler, Bears director of rugby Pat Lam said: “He is not quite fully fit (for this weekend) but he should be ready for semi-finals rugby.
“He has been working really well with the medical staff. He has done great work with our RTP team (Return to Perform) over the course of the season, where we really looked at his history of injuries and strains and then put a phenomenal programme in place for him to strengthen a lot of his key muscles as a scrummager and a dynamic rugby player.
“It would be fair to say if we look back at the injury he suffered on Thursday, if he hadn’t done a lot of that work it could have been a lot worse and that is real credit to Kyle and the work he has done to bulletproof a lot of his key muscles.
“When it first happened I thought, ‘Oh no.’ But the good thing is since then the scan revealed he could be back very soon.
“Then he obviously got the news about the Lions and he has been working out there (at the Bears’
High Performance Centre) today. He should be fully fit and ready to go semi-final week.”
If the Bears can secure top spot with a win over the Exiles this weekend, they will face Harlequins in the play-offs. However, there are permutations that mean they could face either Sale Sharks or Exeter Chiefs instead with the order of the top three coming down to the last weekend of the regular season.
Bristol welcomed back wing Henry Purdy last weekend against his former club Tigers, and Lam confirmed Australian international Luke Morahan should be back in the mix this week.
However, flying rugby league convert Siva Naulago remains out with a knee issue, having not played for the Bears since March 21 when he scored his seventh try of the season against Northampton Saints.
Lam said: “Siva is probably still struggling (this weekend).
“Luke Morahan has gone through the HIA process and is looking much better this week. He was unavailable against Leicester Tigers because of the HIA process.”
Lam confirmed he has a number of walking wounded from the physical encounter against Leicester, with Siale Piutau passing a HIA during the course of the game on his way to winning the man-of-thematch award. Decisions on those players will be made later in the week.
Lam added: “We picked up quite a few knocks at the weekend. It has been a bit of a lighter week (of training) because as you can imagine we are not at round one, we have been going for 40 or 50 games now, so while people are fit, there are so many who aren’t fully fit.”