Wallaby prop's World Cup dream shattered

Wallabies prop Tom Robertson may be out of Australia’s Rugby World Cup plans after suffering a knee injury in Argentina.

Robertson went down early on during the team’s last on-field session in Buenos Aires on Thursday, before they head to Salta to play the Pumas on Saturday.

If the non-contact injury is as bad as first feared, Robertson is expected to spend an extended spell on the sidelines.

If confirmed to be an ACL tear, the injury may rule the 24-year-old out of World Cup contention, with the tournament less than one year away.

“I’d say he’s done a significant knee injury,” Wallabies coach Michael Cheika told reporters.

“I won’t pre-empt scans or anything like that but it’s not looking ideal.”

“It was nothing. Just a very innocuous event, no contact, nothing. It looks significant.

“He’ll stay with us now, there’s no point sending him home yet, and when he gets home he’ll get the scans he needs and then I’d imagine, the operation he needs after that.”

Robertson hasn’t started for the Wallabies since the first Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney and has been left out of Michael Cheika’s matchday 23 for Australia’s last two fixtures.

His absence means a likely call-up to camp for fellow prop Jermaine Ainsley for the third Bledisloe Cup Test in Japan and the forthcoming tour of Wales, Italy and England to round out the year.