1
Jack Nowell is a major doubt for England’s November internationals after he suffered a fractured cheekbone and eye socket playing for Exeter Chiefs on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The winger sustained a blow to the left-side of his face during the Chiefs’ victory over Newcastle Falcons in the Premiership and early reports have suggested he will miss all of England’s matches next month.
Eddie Jones’ side host Argentina, Australia and Samoa at Twickenham in November and are already without Billy Vunipola, Manu Tuilagi and Jack Clifford.
Nowell – who has scored 11 tries in 23 appearances for England – could join that list, according to Rob Baxter, but that will depend on whether the 24-year-old requires surgery to fix the problem.
“Jack has got a couple of fractures in the top of his check and eye socket,” Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby, said on Wednesday.
“At this stage, it is looking likely he will require an operation to settle it down. Until the surgeon moves in and does some more investigation, that’s about as far as I can tell you.
“Depending on when the operation happens, if it is definitely required, which is looking likely, and the severity of the injury, that will then decide whether there is no way back for the autumn internationals.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It is still a little early to write him off for the whole of the autumn internationals, but that is something we will assess in the next week or so.”
Baxter added: “I am disappointed for him personally. He is in good form, starting this season really well for us, and obviously he wanted to have a couple of big rounds in the European Champions Cup to get himself right in the frame for England.
“That, unfortunately, has been damaged now with a pretty innocuous and unfortunate injury. Now, he is going to be held back for the next six to eight weeks.
“It is in and around his eye. We are not anticipating any issues with his vision but obviously there are optical nerves and facial nerves around that area that an operation will disturb. Those things will take a little while to settle as well.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I don’t want to say the wrong thing. Until we have fully got right into the crux of what is going on there…we are still waiting to see the consultant.
“I think six weeks from the time of injury is a figure that we’ve had bandied around. There is the potential for it to be four weeks, there is the potential for it to be eight weeks.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Pls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
124 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
124 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
124 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
4 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
124 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
4 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to comments