England reveal how long Brad Shields will be sidelined for... and it's not encouraging
England flanker Brad Shields faces a race against time to be fit for the World Cup after being ruled out for up to six weeks with a foot injury.
The Wasps back row came home early last week from England’s warm-weather training camp in Treviso after sustaining ligament damage and assistant coach John Mitchell has now revealed that he could miss all four tournament warm-up games.
“Brad’s got a tear in the lower foot. It’s always a little bit niggly, but it’s four to six weeks for him,” explained Mitchell via a media conference call on Tuesday afternoon from Treviso where England are currently based.
“We will continue to be updated and appraise his recovery and see where he gets to. Eddie will decide… it’s important that Eddie (Jones) will decide on who is right and who is not right. Plenty of time to go.”
Shields’ unavailability means coach boss Jones has a tricky call to make when he names his 31-strong squad for the finals on August 12, the day after England open their warm-up series with a fixture versus Wales at Twickenham.
📋 SQUAD UPDATE | Quins forward Alex Dombrandt will fly out to Italy to join the England squad later. He will replace Brad Shields (Wasps) who returns home after picking up a foot ligament injury.
Shields will undergo assessment in England to understand the extent of the injury pic.twitter.com/IrZuxF8kjs
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) July 25, 2019
New Zealand-born forward Shields has been replaced at the warm-weather camp by Harlequins’ Alex Dombrandt, a player Mitchell claims he has been impressed by.
“Alex has basically been with us right from the start when the (first training) squad was named. Again also he had time out, he is a young athlete… but yeah, he is progressing nicely. Every day he is getting a little bit better and is learning a lot. I have actually really enjoyed (him), he has been quite outstanding in the programme.”
Shields, Mako Vunipola, George Kruis and Jack Nowell are all now in various stages of rehab. “George is back in training this week, which has been really good for him,” added Mitchell, who couldn’t be exact in specifying when Kruis might play.
🌇 RISING SONS: Episode 4
The journey to Japan continues as Eddie puts the squad through their paces at a training camp in Treviso 👊 #WearTheRose 🌹 @O2Sports pic.twitter.com/EM4dE99LKE
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) July 30, 2019
“The medical team have done a great job on his progression. He is back in full off enthusiasm and looking great. And Mako is progressing nicely. We should see him back in at some point in August.”
Mitchell added the warm-weather camp in Italy is proving worthwhile for England, explaining that not only are they getting used the sort of humidity they will face in Japan, he also revealed what the forwards got up.
“It has been good. The guys are working really hard. It is certainly asking questions and greater demands on people’s workrate off the ball and the little things that are unseen when you are challenged by heat and fatigue. It is asking a lot off questions of people mentally and physically which is what we want.
“The heat isn’t too bad. It’s 36°C, 34°C, but it’s the variance in the humidity for those of you that have experienced any type of exercise in humidity.
“It takes a while to adapt and it varies from 10 to 15 per cent. We have had some humidity ranging between 75 to 90 here so it makes you sweat and it sits on you as well. The intake of fluid and electrolytes is critical every day.
“Italy were in yesterday and it was invaluable. It is always nice at some point in your preparation to train against an organised opposition that you are not familiar with on a day by day basis.
“It was really constructive. Very unemotional, which often can’t be the case when you have forwards up against forwards. But both countries got a lot out it.
“It was just purely unit training. There were rules around the contact constraints. There was certainly no bone-on-bone or live contact. It was purely units.”
WATCH: Part one of Operation Jaypan, the two-part RugbyPass documentary series on what the fans can expect at the Rugby World Cup
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments