Troubling signs for England's World Cup campaign

INJURY UPDATE: Exeter Chiefs and England forward Sam Simmonds may not feature in next year's World Cup after being ruled out for six to nine months due to a knee injury.

Simmonds ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament during Exeter Chiefs’ 28-11 Premiership win over Worcester Warriors last weekend.

The injury setback means that Simmonds will be unavailable for England's November Test Series and Six Nations tournament.

"Sam Simmonds has ruptured his ACL. He’s going to go for a reconstruction, so that’s going to be six months onwards," Exeter Chiefs’ director of rugby, Rob Baxter confirmed.

"The only thing I can say to Sam with any certainty is, he’s a young player and the reality now – with all the talk of player welfare and the number of games you can play – the one thing is he’s not going to be playing any games for the next six months.

"Who knows what’s going to happen to the back-row resources between now and the World Cup? The other guys are going to be playing – they are the guys who are more likely to be picking up injuries than Sam.

"Also, he’s a young guy – a six-month break now at this time in his career, he’s got a really good break now. He’s got an opportunity of getting really mentally and physically fresh for what might be a fantastic two or three years for him after this injury.

"Yes, he’s going to miss out on some big games now, but you’d hope that those big games can get added to the end of his career because he’s not taking the battering now,"

Simmonds has been a big part of Exeter’s pack, helping the side to an undefeated start to the season in their first five matches, just one competition point behind defending champions Saracens.

Source: rugbypass