England's Ellis Genge out of Bristol Bears final game with injury

Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam admits that England loosehead Ellis Genge has been ruled out of their final game of the season at Sale Sharks on Saturday after picking up a calf injury in the win over arch West Country rivals Bath last weekend.

Lam says that even though Genge won’t be fit for the Sharks, he will be okay for England’s inaugural Nations Championship campaign, which starts against back-to-back World Cup winners South Africa at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, on July 4.

He says that Genge, who has played 26 games for club and country this season, has had a scan and has been cleared of any serious damage and should be available for England’s first training camp before the trip to South Africa.

“He has had a scan, so I think at this stage it might only be two or three weeks, you know, at most. We have the England physios with our medical team as well, so we are just going through that.

“Initially, there was a concern, but the scans and both medical teams are on top of it. So I expect him to be at the next England camp. We had the end-of-season review for Ellis, and he has been phenomenal.

“When you look at history, a lot of the Lions boys struggle either physically or mentally when they come back from a tour. Ellis came back, and his form was outstanding. He played really well. It’s been one of his best years for us.

“He’s played a lot of games, but he’s also been well rested at different times, giving him breaks and so forth. And he’s had a great season,” said Lam.

Lam will take the Bears to the North West, also missing Fitz Harding, who has been confirmed to have broken his hand against Bath, and George Kloska and Santi Grondona, who both failed HIAs.

“Fitz’s hand is broken. It happened 10 minutes into the game. We were prepared to take him off, and he wouldn’t come off, and you wouldn’t have known he had broken his hand from his performance.

“He had an X-ray, and they confirmed he has broken his hand. He’s in recovery mode there, but he’s been helping the boys this week,” added Lam.