Northampton Saints boss offers update on George Furbank after ‘dumb luck’ injury
George Furbank being stretchered off in the Champions Cup final
Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson has detailed star full-back George Furbank is ok after suffering a sickening head injury in the Champions Cup final.
Furbank, who was making his first appearance since their quarter-final win over Castres back in March, was stretchered off after just two minutes in his side’s 28-20 defeat to Bordeaux-Begles in the showpiece in Cardiff, after a collision with opposite number Romain Buros.
The England international was later seen back among the rest of the playing squad on the sidelines in the second-half, but did not return to the field.
George Furbank update after ‘dumb luck’ injury in Champions Cup final
Club captain Furbank has become an integral part of this Northampton Saints side in recent years, but has had his fair share of injury woes this season.
He broke his arm in their Champions Cup pool stage win over the Bulls in Pretoria, and was spent three months on the sidelines before making his return against Castres.
In that game, he also took a whack on the same arm and was later ruled out for a further spell, missing their famous semi-final win over Leinster in the process.
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This is a new injury for him to contend with now too, particularly ahead of the England tour to Argentina later this summer, but speaking after the game, Saints boss Dowson detailed that Furbank is frustrated at suffering this latest knock
“George is ok, he’s very frustrated. Clearly he’s worked hard to get back from both his arm injury and other muscular bits, so to then be in an accident of dumb luck and be ruled out of the game early on is a real frustration for him,” he said.
“He’s ok, though, physically.”
Furbank wasn’t the only early injury Saints suffered at the Principality, with fellow back-three man James Ramm also limping off moments after Alex Coles scored the first try of the game.
That re-shuffle couldn’t have come at a worse time too, given they then had to deploy the returning Ollie Sleightholme off the bench for 77 minutes in his first game since his injury in the Six Nations.
“It has a huge impact, clearly,” said Dowson on the injuries and the reshuffle.
“It’s not ideal. It changes things, but that’s the whole point of having a bench with players keen to get on, and so for them to come on and have such an impact is impressive; but it’s not ideal.”
