Warrior Stu faces test sweat over shoulder
STUART HOGG faces a test on his injured shoulder tomorrow to find out whether he can feature in Glasgow Warriors’ European Champions Cup matches later this month.
The full-back had surgery on his shoulder during the summer, which forced him to miss the start of the season and at one stage looked as though it might rule him out of Scotland’s November Tests. Now, there is hope he could be back this month.
“Everything depends on the results,” he said. “It is a big day. Hopefully that will give me a definitive answer on when I’ll be back playing. Hopefully it’s not too far. It’s just a matter of wait and see. There’s nothing else I can say.
“I am feeling good. I had a strength test a couple of weeks ago and it gave me an area to work on, so I have been working hard in the gym and I feel all right.
“I’m being careful on the basis I have never had a longterm injury before. Hopefully it is the last one.
“I am always sceptical about saying how it will work – I don’t know how these injuries work.
“It was a bit of wear and tear – a couple of incidents too. I picked up a head knock against England and managed somehow to pop my AC [shoulder] joint as well, I have no idea how.”
With the fit members of the Glasgow squad away in South Africa, Hogg was delegated to be the club’s representative at the European Champions Cup launch in Dublin, and made clear that though Glasgow got a monkey off their back by qualifying fo the knockout stage for the first time last year, they are taking nothing for granted in this campaign.
With Exeter Chiefs, the English champions, Montpellier, now coached by Ver n Cotter, the for mer Scotland head coach and French Top 14 leaders, as well as traditional rivals Leinster in their pool, nothing will come easily.
“Everyone who was involved in Europe last year got a feel for success by qualifying from the pool,” Hogg agreed. “The problem with thinking a hurdle has gone is that that all happened last year. We can only control the future.
“We’ll do everything we can to get back to that – and the experience of getting to the quarters should stand us in good stead – but we are only looking forward.”