Sharples cleared to face the Chiefs
Gloucester winger regains fitness in time for Cherry & Whites’ clash with table toppers
GLOUCESTER have been boosted by the much-needed return of winger Charlie Sharples who will rejoin the squad following his absence against Leicester last Friday.
Sharples, pictured, has scored eight tries this season and will be needed ahead of the clash with the league leaders Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Saturday lunchtime.
Speaking about his return head coach Johan Ackermann said: “He is cleared and fully to go, but other than that it’ll be the same squad as last week.”
Elsewhere Aaron Hinkley has trained with the senior squad again following an appearance in the Premiership Shield last week.
Looking at the back-row injury crisis Ackermann said: “We’ve got one or two knocks that we’re seeing if they can get over the line. With Jake Polledri away and Ruan Ackermann and Lewis Ludlow injured, we need to make sure that if one of our back rowers isn’t available then he’ll be available for that role.’’
Polledri will remain with Italy for one final week of international fix- tures whilst Ruan Ackermann’s scan has revealed some bad news fro the club.
“Unfortunately it’s not good news. It looks like he’ll need an operation and that’ll put him out for 10-12 weeks,” said the head coach.
With squad depth already stretched it’ll put even more pressure on those players that remain fit.
Gloucester will be hoping for the return of Ludlow and Polledri as soon as possible with a tough December ahead, full of European fixtures.
Following an appearance in the Premiership Shield against Exeter Braves last week, Ben Vellacott’s road to recovery has gone better than initially thought.
“That injury is clearing up nicely, but it’s still a bit irritated and it’s not 100 per cent,” said the head coach. “It’s got a bit of inflammation. I spoke to the medical team about him this morning and they feel he’s still about a week or so from being fully fit’,”
Owen Williams’ knock against Bristol hasn’t put him out for too long as he returns to full fitness.
Ackermann said they will make a call on Williams in the next few days. “He’s 100 per cent, we’ll make the final call later in the week because his biggest challenge was the contact side of things after the shot he took against Bristol, but he’s ticking all the boxes so far, so to us he’s available this week.” With Willi Heinz back fit, Vellacott on the verge of returning and Danny Cipriani back after suspension, Gloucester fans can rest assured that they have some depth again behind the scrum.
In the front row Val Rapava-Ruskin missed the game last Friday due to illness that limited his training time in the week, but he is due to return ahead of the Exeter game and will strengthen a much-needed set piece.
“Val is fit and ready to go, but he wasn’t injured, he just had a bug he couldn’t shift,” said Ackermann.
Kyle Traynor remains with the club as his week to week progress continues and will be looking to get some more game time against the Chiefs.
Ruan Dreyer is “still a few weeks off ” from a return following a groin struggle.
Ackermann said: “He has a groin issue that isn’t healing up as much as we’d have wanted. At the moment he’s still a few weeks away from returning. I can’t give you an exact date, but it’ll be a number of weeks until we see him back.”
With the injured players returning one by one, Gloucester will be looking to retain a strong set piece following on from a dominant Leicester display and will hope that the remaining injured players in the squad can only add to the squad strength as they filter back into the side.