Daly sparks concern with latest injury

WASPS and England are sweating on the fitness of Elliot Daly after he suffered a shoulder injury against Northampton Saints.

The British Lion, below, picked up the knock while clearing out Saints second row James Craig from a ruck and was replaced by Gaby Lovobalavu in the 72nd minute of Sunday’s 36-29 win over Northampton Saints.

With a play-off semi-final against Exeter Chiefs or Saracens now on the horizon, director of rugby Dai Young has the luxury of not needing to win the club’s final game of the season at Newcastle Falcons allowing for extra recovery time.

“It’s too early to tell, it’s more of a collision injury,” said Young.

Daly has endured a stopstart season for Wasps and missed nine Premiership and European games due to an ankle injury picked up against La Rochelle in December.

His return to fitness prompted an immediate England recall before returning to Wasps action against Leicester Tigers.

The 25-year-old has started Wasps’ last four games scoring four tries and weighed in with a conversion against Worcester Warriors.

England head coach Eddie Jones was in the crowd at the Ricoh Arena on Sunday to watch Wasps’ 36-29 win and will announce his squad to tour South Africa this summer on May 10.

Daly is not Wasps’ only fresh injury concern as loose head prop Simon McIntyre picked up a foot injury five minutes before half-time.

Young said: “If he’s struggling, then we wouldn’t play him next week. But it’s a difficult one really.

““Talking to Dean Richards [Newcastle Falcons] at the Directors of Rugby meeting, they’ve been at the latter stages of everything and they’ve just kept on playing roughly the same guys and they think they’ve benefited from playing week after week.

“Sometimes you need that rest and sometimes you benefit from playing.

“We’ll play the guys that are 100 per cent and the guys that aren’t, we’ll look to rotate.”