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Henson to miss the season`s start

Tuesday 01st July 2008

Long road back: Henson is still recovering from his ankle injury

Ospreys and Wales centre Gavin Henson is set to miss the start of the new season.

Henson had surgery on his ankle at the end of April to repair damage sustained against Saracens in the Heineken Cup.

It was hoped that the 26-year-old would be fit for the start of the new season, but Ospreys medical staff have revealed he wont be fit for action until the end of September.

They also confirmed their two other long-term injury victims Mike Phillips and Ben Lewis will return on time.

Physio Chris Towers said Henson is still in a walking plaster, which is due to come off on 10 July, and is recovering well from his injury.

"Once the plaster has been removed then we'll be looking at working closely with him to get it functioning properly," said Towers.

"The indications are that the ankle is coming along well and we are looking towards Gavin returning to action towards the latter end of September."

He added that Phillips was currently three months into recovering from the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction of his right knee and was already starting to develop his strength and power.

The 25-year-old scrum-half his cruciate ligament in the Ospreys' EDF Energy Cup win over Saracens in March and is on target to return at the of September or early October.

Highly-rated open-side flanker Lewis suffered a similar injury in May and is six weeks into his own rehabilitation programme with the region expecting him to be fit again by November.

In addition, Lee Byrne, Nikki Walker and Andrew Millward have all undergone minor operations with all three due to take a full part in pre-season training which begins on Monday.