FROM LION KING TO LAZARUS
Star of All Blacks tour faced injury agony, but Daly’s back to tackle Pumas
ELLIOT DALY made a miraculous return to the England team as Eddie Jones reminded his squad who is the boss.
Daly’s call-up, to face Argentina tomorrow, came less than a fortnight after he was effectively ruled out of England’s autumn campaign by a torn knee ligament.
His recovery provoked greater surprise than Jones resting Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje, which did not go down well with the duo.
“Both of them are unhappy,” confirmed the Australian. “They hate it – which is a great reaction – because they love playing for England. They want to play every Test, to be part of a winning team.
“But they have to understand I run the team – I make the decisions. And I make them in the best interests of the team and for the individual.”
Jones had no difficulty convincing Daly to play against the Pumas given he was sent off for a dangerous tackle against them five minutes into last year’s fixture.
“That wasn’t the best day for me,” the Wasps star recalled. “It’ll be nice to get 80 minutes.”
That he can play is remarkable given Jones was told Daly’s injury ruled him out for four weeks.
“There is probably a bit of a tear in the MCL (medial collateral ligament),” the winger said. “But I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t 100 per cent fit.”
Dubbed “Lazarus” by teammates, he joked he had visited a “magic healer” – hours after Manu Tuilagi claimed a witch doctor banished his injury curse. “I had a couple of days off then realised my knee probably wasn’t as bad as we first thought,” Daly added.
“It is a kind of ‘do it, if it hurts, stop it’ type of injury.”
With Jonny May crocked, Jones wasted no time adding Daly’s experience to a back line featuring first-time midfield combination, Henry Slade and Jonathan Joseph.
Slade’s promotion is down to the decision to rest play-maker Farrell, which Jones admits was easier said than done. Had Farrell and Itoje argued, he was asked?
“Yeah, yeah,” Jones replied. “But at the end of the day not everyone is on the same level (of conditioning).
“So, we have got to convince them that it is in their best interests for this period.”