Saints confirm severity of Ollie Sleightholme setback

Northampton Saints Director of Rugby Phil Dowson has admitted that England winger Ollie Sleightholme will struggle to be back for much of what remains of the regular season after undergoing minor surgery on his left ankle.

The 24-year-old started three of England’s games during the Six Nations, appearing in the one-point wins over France and Scotland and the 47-24 victory against Italy, but will now be out for “a minimum of eight weeks.”

Given that timescale, the best-case scenario is that Sleightholme will be back for the round 17 clash at home to Saracens and the round 18 game away to Gloucester. Saints’ involvement beyond then is in severe doubt as things stand with the defending champions nine points adrift of the play-off zone in eighth place in the table.

Sleightholme’s omission from England’s matchday 23 in the championship finale against Wales raised some eyebrows after he’d scored twice against the Azzurri. But the Northampton player solved the mystery on Monday, when he posted a picture of himself from his hospital bed on Instagram, including the message, “I rolled too far (laughing emoji) … be back soon.”

 

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A post shared by Ollie Sleightholme (@ollie_sleightss)

Dowson revealed that the injury came about as result of ‘friendly fire’ during an England training session, when he collided with his club team-mate Fraser Dingwall.

“Ollie was training on Friday, his last training session, and he rolled his ankle, so he has a minor operation to tidy up some of the ligaments and stuff, and he’ll be out for a minimum of eight weeks, which is hugely frustrating for him.

“He obviously wasn’t involved in the Wales game and was coming back to us with a point to prove and, unfortunately, he has picked something up. That’s the nature of the beast.”

Meanwhile, Dowson said George Furbank “wasn’t too far away” from returning from a broken arm and is taking part in light training.

“With his arm break it is hard to judge when he goes back into full contact, so we’re being fairly conservative on that.”