Premiership: Exeter monitoring Sam Simmonds’ injury but hopeful of a return before the end of the regular season
2AJRBXA READING, UNITED KINGDOM. 05th, Jan 2020. Sam Simmonds Exeter Chiefs (centre) in action during Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between London Irish vs Exeter Chiefs at Madejski Stadium on Sunday, 05 January 2020. LONDON England . (Editorial use only, license required for commercial use. No use in betting, games or a single club/league/player publications.) Credit: Taka G Wu/Alamy Live News
Exeter and England number eight Sam Simmonds will not feature for his club this weekend as they monitor several issues keeping him out of action.
Director of rugby Rob Baxter confirmed there is a chance Simmonds will return to the field before the end of the regular season, but the situation remains unclear.
Seeing a specialist
The 27-year-old is set to see a specialist this week to better understand the injury that is keeping him from playing and even taking part in training.
“It’s a hip/groin, a combination of a few things. He is sore, he is struggling to train really and that is the problem,” he explained to the Chiefs‘ website post-game last Saturday.
“We can get him on the field but he is very limited training which fitness-wise and performance-wise, he is kind of on that downward spiral until we can sort this issue out. We are investigating that now, he will see the specialist this week but with all the scans and things, we are hopeful we will see him before the end of the season.”
The plan for the moment is to monitor the England international, with Baxter hesitant to make any judgements on when his star will return.
“We are still monitoring it,” he said. “There are some treatment options, a lot more is going to be known this week. It doesn’t necessarily need to be season over for him, but we just need to assess everything correctly.”
Baxter was tight-lipped when asked whether Simmonds could be a doubt for England’s three-match Test series with Australia.
“Without him getting all the consultants’ feedback, it’s at what level they think any intervention is required at this stage,” he said. “So I don’t want to say he will definitely be back for England and I don’t want to say he will definitely be back for us at the end of the season because I don’t think it is as simple a prognosis as that.”
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