George Furbank comeback a 'day-by-day' process: Phil Dowson

Northampton Director of Rugby Phil Dowson says the club are erring on the side of caution when it comes to reintroducing last season’s luckless captain George Furbank to first-team action.

Furbank had what Dowson described as an ‘annus horribilis’ in 2024/25, after breaking his right arm in December and then suffering two ill-fated comebacks.

The England international received a heavy knock to the same arm 51 minutes into his first comeback game against Castres in the Investec Champions Cup in April and missed another five games before making a shock return in the Champions Cup final against Bordeaux-Begles.

Just four minutes in, Furbank received a blow to the face and took no further part in the match.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Northampton

32 - 26

Full-time

Leicester

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Meanwhile, Dowson says a soft tissue injury has prevented the 28-year-old from appearing so far this season.

“George had a horrible year last year, an annus horribilis; he obviously had a shocking season with injuries. And he picked something up a couple of weeks ago, from a soft tissue point of view.

“We just want to make sure that we are really slow-walking it, to make sure he doesn’t have any other setbacks. People will, rugby players will, but we are trying to give him every opportunity.

“That’s almost, and it sounds ridiculous, a day-by-day thing, to see how he’s feeling, where his head is at, and how his body is feeling.

“But he’s been out, he’s been moving around today, and so we are going to build him back in slowly over the next couple of weeks and see where we end up.”