England star to be assessed after concerning knock in Northampton Saints’ Champions Cup victory
George Furbank made a classy return to action in Northampton's win over Castres, but was taken off in the second-half
Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson has revealed George Furbank will be assessed by medical staff after coming off early into his return to action.
The England international came off the bench after just three minutes into Saints’ 51-16 win over Castres in the Champions Cup, but he was later substituted in the second-half after taking what appeared to be a blow to the same arm.
Furbank has been on the physio table since mid-December following a broken arm in Northampton’s Champions Cup win over the Bulls in Pretoria.
Dowson provides update on George Furbank
Speaking after the match, Dowson detailed the factors behind the decision to take him off.
“George was dropped straight in, and that’s tough to do,” he said. “In an ideal world, he wouldn’t have been on after three minutes.
“He played a lot of minutes, and we’re just trying to make sure we look after him because he gets sore and was blowing a bit.
“He’s got some ice on it, and we’ll have a look at it to see how he feels. It’s hard to tell at this point, but we’ll talk to the physios to see how he is.”
Dowson also revealed Furbank had only had one full week of training in the build-up to the quarter-final clash, and was yet to do contact.
“He’s had one full training week because he was ill last week, which is when we would have had some collision training.”
“He showed his class”
Despite having his return to action cut short, Furbank made a sparkling return to action in the win.
With what seemed like his first touch of the ball, Furbank produced a delicious assist to send Tommy Freeman over the whitewash, and simply continued from there with another classy assist and a try of his own. However, it seemed he took the blow to his arm after grounding the ball down and was in visible discomfort until being taken off.
His performance in just 55 minutes has already been enough to bring him back into the Lions conversation, and Dowson was full of praise for the back.
“He showed the class and quality he has with those two assists and in his ability to move the ball, all the parts of his game that you love him for.”
Northampton now prepare for a second successive Champions Cup semi-final clash with Leinster at Croke Park, after the Irish outfit waltzed to a 52-0 win over Glasgow on Friday night.
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