Joe Schmidt issues ‘hopeful’ update on Noah Lolesio as forced removals ‘frustrates’ Wallabies boss before B&I Lions
Wallabies playmaker Noah Lolesio and head coach Joe Schmidt.
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt has revealed that he is “hopeful” that star fly-half Noah Lolesio’s injury, which he sustained in Sunday’s win over Fiji, is not a serious one.
Australia had to dig deep to clinch a narrow 21-18 victory in Newcastle with a 78th minute try from captain Harry Wilson, which was converted by Ben Donaldson, sparing their blushes.
Left the field on a stretcher
However, Lolesio had to leave the field on a stretcher in the 61st minute after he took a big hit in contact and stayed down.
There were major concerns in the Wallabies camp over the 25-year-old’s condition but they gave an update later on Sunday which revealed that Lolesio had been discharged from hospital and cleared of a neck injury.
“Noah’s first question to me was, ‘Did we win?'”, said Schmidt. “So he was very much still focused on the game. He appeared to be in good shape, that’s the most important thing.
“We obviously haven’t selected our Lions squad, this was one game that sat before that, and we will sit down and consider our options.
“If you look at what Ben Donaldson did, I’m not sure that he didn’t do what exactly he needed to do. He put us in the corner, and he did what was needed to make sure we were in the game at the end and got the game done.
“With Noah, it was whiplash, and his head hit the ground. I’m hopeful that it is something that will resolve itself reasonably quickly.
‘We don’t take any risks that we don’t need there’
“At the same time, we are going to make sure he is okay and we don’t take any risks that we don’t need there, and the same is true for Dave Porecki.”
Schmidt, who will announce his Wallabies squad for the series against the Lions on Friday, July 11, also revealed that he was frustrated that he could not get a good look at some of his players ahead of that announcement after Porecki and James Slipper also had to leave the field for HIAs.
“It was frustrating just because we wanted to get time with those combinations, but that’s sport, you don’t get what you want,” he explained. “The one luxury is that we do have time on our side to see how Dave is and see whether he is available for Suncorp.
“At the same time, James Slipper got through the game really well, albeit he came off. He was actually confused by it himself; he didn’t get head contact at all, it was shoulder, but maybe the impact with the size of the bloke he was trying to get to the ground, he definitely got a stinger on the shoulder.
“Sometimes that can trigger an alert, and therefore, he was taken off, but he was fine after the game.
“The rest of the front-rowers were fine, Angus Bell was delighted Slipper had to come off and got to come on for a while, and immediately got into a good groove around carrying, cleaning and tackling.”
READ MORE: Joe Schmidt’s brutally honest take on Wallabies’ chances of ‘bowling over’ the B&I Lions
