MISSING WARRIOR
Still no sign of injured Nakarawa nine months after last appearance
FRUSTRATED Glasgow Warriors head coach Danny Wilson admits t hat i njured s t ar Leone Nakarawa is unlikely to return to action before the end of this year.
Great things were expected of the Fijian international when he joined the Scotstoun club for the second time in his career in January.
But the 32-year- old second row has played only three times since his much-heralded return, scoring on his ‘debut’ in a Champions Cup match against Sale and making two appearances in the Pro14 in February prior to lockdown.
Nakarawa was initially unavailable when rugby returned in August after returning to Fiji for a family bereavement.
Now Wilson has revealed that the player then failed to link up with his home nation for the Autumn Nations Cup because of a knee injury and has returned to Glasgow for treatment and rehabilitation.
It is hardly the ideal situation for a Warriors side who have made their worst start to a season in 14 years, with just one league win in six games.
Nakarawa, who is contracted to Glasgow until next summer, was previously sacked by Racing 92 for returning late to the club after last year’s World Cup in Japan.
Clearly unhappy with how things have panned out, head coach Wilson said: ‘He’s not fit. He’s got a knee injury. He came back and was assessed and hadn’t recovered from a previous knee injury well enough.
‘His knee needs strengthening and conditioning and we’re putting him through that process.
‘He was due to go with Fiji in the Nations Cup but he didn’t for that reason. He’s currently rehabbing and training with us, light training. He’ll be back in the coming weeks but not this week as he still has a bit to do.
‘It’s very frustrating. We’ve got enough players unavailable to us for a number of different reasons at the moment.
‘If he had been fit, he may have played one or two games then gone off to the Fiji camp anyway.
‘We had him back very late due to lots of different situations, which were very understandable, but the fact that he came back not fit to play was obviously very frustrating.
‘But that’s been sorted and we’re on the road to recovery with that situation and hopefully it won’t be long before we see him back in a Warriors shirt.’
Wilson hasn’t had his troubles to seek during a period which has seen him lose his international players, and was less than impressed on Monday night when skipper Ryan Wilson’s needless yellow card contributed to a 27-13 home defeat to Munster.
Trailing by two points with just over ten minutes l eft, Wilson tackled Munster scrum-half Craig Casey off the ball and was sent to the sin bin — during which time the visitors ran in two decisive tries.
‘Ryan Wilson has been absolutely outstanding for this group and I’ve been so impressed with his leadership on and off the field and his commitment to Glasgow Warriors is phenomenal,’ said Wilson.
‘Having said that, he is the first to admit he made an error and a poor decision when we’re only two points behind with ten minutes or so to go. It’s tough enough against Munster when you’ve got 15 on the park and eight forwards.’
Wilson’s Warriors take on the head coach’s former club Cardiff Blues on Sunday, with the Pro14 fixture switched to Newport as Cardiff Arms Park and the Principality stadium are being used as field hospitals during the pandemic. He admits victory is vital after such a dreadful start to the league season.
‘I think we’re all aware it’s been a difficult period. It will continue to be very, very challenging, j ust because a lot has changed since before and during Covid,’ added Wilson. ‘We’re sat here today with 24 players unavailable to us, so it’s meant we’ve had to do a fair bit of getting people in, from loans, from local clubs, from all over the place, to try and deal with the situation.’