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Italian talisman's Twickenham trip in doubt following latest injury update


Italy's Sergio Parisse, battling at the centre of a maul against Wales, still hasn't recovered from a February 16 concussion for his club Stade Francais (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)
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Sergio Parisse is a doubt for Italy’s round four Guinness Six Nations match against England after he failed to recover from concussion in time to play for Stade Francais in Sunday’s big Top 14 fixture versus leaders Toulouse. 

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The Italian skipper suffered the knock to his head a fortnight ago when lining out for his club as a substitute in their French league defeat to Lyon.

He was quickly ruled out of Italian selection to face Ireland, the Azzurri reporting on the Tuesday of last week that he he had suffered a setback on the second stage when following the return to play protocols.

Parisse remained on in Rome with his country and watched from the sidelines as they came close to causing a major upset against the defending Six Nations champions.

He returned to Paris on Monday to continue his rehabilitation, but he still hasn’t full recovered as Stade, who lie 16 points behind Toulouse on the Top 14 table, have reported that he needs to take additional exams in the coming days to determine the exact day that he can return to play.  

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The 35-year-old has represented the Italians on 135 occasions, but he has featured in just two of their last nine matches having been excluded from their 2018 June tour to Japan and their four-match November series leading into this year’s Six Nations. 

Parisse led the team in their defeats to Scotland and Wales before sitting out last Sunday’s round three match against the Irish where Conor O’Shea’s charges had a sniff of finally ending a 20-game run without a win in the Six Nations.

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This year is thought to be the veteran No8’s last at Test level as he is expected to retire from Italian duty following the Wold Cup where they have been pitted in a pool against defending champions New Zealand, South Africa, Namibia and Canada.  

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NoLongerARuck 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

The Six Nations produced so many compelling games and so much of action packed moments that you can only conclude that its the best international comp out there at the moment except for a world cup. If Wales improve it will be even better especially given the strides Italy have made in recent times. The Rugby Championship is now taking a hiatus in a year it really should be building toward something better which is terrible considering the competition was so tight last year. The Nations Champs promises much but one gets the feeling that the 6 Nations teams will not be at their peak given its at the end of their long season. In terms of rugby quality and entertainment Id rather watch the 6 Nations over everything else other than a world cup right now. The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field. In terms of entertainment the North wins. In terms of winning? They are making strides but until they win another world cup or get a team to rank number 1 again for an extended time again they cant really say they are better than the South.

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