'More significant injury than was hoped': Baxter gives Ikitau update

Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter is hoping that Wallaby superstar Len Ikitau will be back in action towards the end of March after having an operation on a shoulder injury he picked up before Christmas.

The outside centre sprinkled star dust at Sandy Park before he injured his shoulder after taking a blow while making a tackle in the 30-24 win against Saracens in North London on December 20.

And when he underwent the knife, Baxter says that the damage was worse than first feared, with the surgeon finding damage to the cartilage in the shoulder.

It’s not the first time he’s suffered a shoulder injury. A fractured scapular picked up against Argentina meant that he wasn’t considered for the 2023 World Cup in France.

The Chiefs have badly missed the Brumbies ace, who is earning around £400k for his nine-month sabbatical in Devon. In the five games he played, Exeter won all five, scoring 176 points.

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But in the five games without him, they have won only two, scored 109 points, and dropped to fifth place in the Gallagher PREM table, eight points behind leaders Northampton Saints, going into this block of PREM Cup games.

Baxter believes that they will know more about his return to action after the Six Nations: “Len, like Tom Hooper, is a pure luck injury. Len is in a big tackle contact where the guy’s knee contacts with his shoulder.

“It is going as well as it can. He is a very diligent rehabber. The issue with Len is that it was a more significant injury than was hoped when the surgeon actually got into the joint.

“There is a bit of a cartilage issue as well, so that is going to need some time. Hopefully, it won’t drag on too long after the PREM Cup period, but we will know a lot about where he is going to be after the Six Nations,” he said.