Boss reveals fresh double injury blow

Worcester Warriors boss Mike Ruddock has revealed Loki Crichton and Marcel Garvey could be set to miss the rest of the season after the injury curse in the back line at Sixways Stadium struck yet again.

Worcester were dealt a blow when fly half Matthew Jones limped out of the campaign on Tuesday night against Gloucester with a brokem foot.

And the injury problems mounted after the home defeat to London Irish in the Guinness Premiership with Ruddock revealing that full back Crichton and wing wonder Garvey, who had been in a rich vein of form, were both facing surgery.

“We have picked up another couple of big injuries,” said the Director of Rugby.

“Loki Crichton has done some knee ligament damage and so he could be gone for next week and possibly even longer. We will have to assess him on Monday.

“Marcel Garvey also looks like he has broken a bone in his hand and he might need an operation so it looks like he is out.

“His hand was swollen after the Gloucester game, we had looked at him and got him x-rayed and that was clear. We named him in the team originally, but then had to drop him out because with the type of injury he has sometimes the fracture doesn’t show up on an x-ray.

“We sent him for a scan to be sure and that picked up some bone damage and it looks like a fracture in or around the joint.

“We will know more when we send him to a specialist on Monday, but it could need an operation and it could need to be pinned. It looks like he has gone and won’t make the semi-final.

“Suddenly with Matthew Jones on Tuesday night, on top of the other injuries in the back line to Chris Pennell, Sam Tuitupou and Chris Latham. I have got more changes to the team than I had hoped for.”

Ruddock admitted the latest double injury blow was coming at a bad time with Bourgoin on the horizon in the European Challenge Cup next weekend.

However, he backed his spirited team to dig deep and gain a crucial result in the last four winner takes all shootout in France next Saturday.

“I won’t put anything past this team getting a result in Bourgoin” he said.

“I never expected us to be in touch at half-time today against Irish, if you look at the two teams on paper they were by far the superior selection.

“But my boys went out and gave it a go. Crucial decisions took the game away from us. They could be the right ones, but as coach I tend to be a little one-eyed and feel they should have gone our way.

“I can just about name a team at the moment, bar a hooker, that we have got missing at the moment.

“However, we will go to Bourgoin and give it our all. It is a one-off and we will give it our best shot, nobody expected us to get a result at Gloucester on Tuesday night and look what we did.”


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