Injured Nowell faces a race against time for England

Chiefs back three player Jack Nowell is in a race against time to even be considered for England’s Six Nations after is was revealed that winger is set to be sidelined with a hamstring tear.

Nowell was forced to withdraw from preparations for last week’s November International against Australia after picking up the injury during training at England’s training base at Pennyhill Park.

The loss of Nowell, however, is an untimely blow for the Chiefs, who not only have a clutch of vital Gallagher Premiership games coming up, but also the double-header against Gloucester in this season’s Heineken Champions Cup.

The club revealed that he will be out for as many as 8 weeks in recovery.

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Nowell featured in the England’s Test matches against South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.

Speaking on the club’s website, headcoach Rob Baxter said: “Jack’s got a pretty significant hamstring tear.”

“It’s one of those injuries which is likely to be around the eight-week mark, give or take a week depending on how his rehab goes. Ironically, he should be back in time to fight for a place in the Six Nations!”

Baxter welcomed back his England contingent this week.

“As you’d expect after four tough rounds of international rugby, the guys are a bit bumped and bruised. There are also elements of mental and physical fatigue which we will have to manage, but overall they are in pretty good shape.

“At the same time, a few of our other injured players are nearing returns to playing.Olly Woodburn, Jonny Hill, Luke Cowan-Dickie, they are all making good progress, while Sam Simmonds is now a couple of months into his rehab on his ACL injury, so it’s nice that as time goes by we are still winning games of rugby.

“That certainly means we can deal with things on a more positive footing moving forward.”