Christian’s comeback is complete
CHRISTIAN LEALI’IFANO is set to face England in the World Cup quarter-final three years after fighting his way back from leukaemia.
Leali’ifano, 32, was recalled by the Wallabies in July after making an extraordinary comeback following the bone marrow transplant from his sister in 2016 which saved his life.
The Brumbies playmaker, who had a spell with Ulster the following year, is likely to edge out Bernard Foley and Matt Toomua (below) for the starting No.10 shirt.
“In a tournament like this, we were always going into it thinking we would share roles in that position,” said
Australia coach
Michael Cheika.
“Obviously,
Christian hasn’t played a lot of Test footy and he’s been building back from quite a serious illness.
“It takes time for him to get up to the levels that he needs to.
“He’s done an absolutely incredible job. I’m not going to throw him out there in every single minute of every game and say, ‘Go slug it out’. Same in training. You want him to keep his energy.”
Lealifi’iano has started two of Australia’s four games at the World Cup so far and came on as a replacement in the other.
He said: “It’s just been managing each game as we go and seeing how I felt day-to-day.
“I’ve spoken a bit about the management of my load and I’ve been really grateful for that, how Cheika and his staff have managed that. So I’m feeling as good as I can be.”
He will come face-to-face with a strong England midfield combination of George Ford and Owen Farrell, but is confident the Wallabies can counter it.
“You see them at a high-class level, so we’ve just got to manage our game, and be able to combat what they have,” he added.