Baxter updates on injury front

Jack Nowell’s knee injury will not require surgery and is not as bad as first feared, Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter has revealed.

But that news has been offset by the revelation that lock Mitch Lees is set for around four months on the sidelines after an operation on his injured arm on Monday.

England back Nowell, 22, hobbled off in some pain with eight minutes left in Saturday’s 19-10 win over Gloucester, having badly twisted his knee in a tackle. He is unlikely to train this week.

Lees, who had been tipped for a spot in Eddie Jones’ England squad to be announced on Wednesday, injured his bicep in the New Year’s Day loss at Northampton.

Speaking of Nowell, Baxter said: “I would describe it at this stage as looking fairly positive to what it could have been.

“We certainly don’t see the need for an operation or anything like that. We are lucky with Nowellsy because he got caught very badly in that tackle and there was a fair old bend in his knee joint.
He was in a lot of discomfort too but our first impressions suggest it is not too bad. We are hoping that will be a relatively short-term injury.”

Baxter continued: “Mitch (pictured) is going to be out long-term. He had an operation on Monday and it could be 16 weeks or so, perhaps a little less. It is a blow but any team in the Premiership has to be able to weather these things and get on with it.”

Baxter also revealed that scrum-half Will Chudley is unlikely to train this week after suffering minor ankle ligament damage in Saturday’s win.

The dead leg which forced Thomas Waldrom off after 67 minutes is not thought to be serious.

Baxter is optimistic for the swift return for Chudley – another Chiefs player who has been linked with full England honours.

“Chudders has quite a bad sprain in his ankle and some ligament damage but our initial thoughts are that will not be too bad either,” said Baxter. “He is unlikely to train this week but our first impressions are that the injury is not to the severity of some of the others we have had. We are not assuming it is long, long term.”

Lees, 27, now joins the likes of Henry Slade and Damian Welch on the long-term injury list. Dave Ewers and Luke Cowan-Dickie have already missed sizeable chunks of the season through knee and thumb injuries respectively, while hamstring and ankle injuries have restricted Sam Hill’s minutes on the pitch.

Baxter said: “Sam, Luke and Dave are all progressing pretty well and we hope to see them back at some point after these European games. Luke is out on the pitch running around. He is out of the cast and is throwing line-outs and doing some stuff with the thumb. It is really just a matter of that joint getting strong enough to make sure he is not susceptible to injury again.

“Dave Ewers is out of a brace completely and is doing some running on the grass. He is not doing stuff in training yet but is doing some straight-line stuff. Sam’s injury is taking a little longer to clear up than we thought. That just needs time though – not an operation or anything. It is just a pain issue.”