Gloucester Rugby are ‘suffering a bit of hangover from last season’ in terms of injuries heading into the new campaign but head coach George Skivington is confident his array of stars in the rehab room will be ready for the start of the new Premiership season.
The Cherry and Whites get their 2023/24 season off the marks on September 9 with Championship side Nottingham coming to Kingsholm in the Premiership Rugby Cup, but Skivington has warned fans he will not take any risks rushing players back too quickly. Amongst those currently sidelined is Scottish international fly-half Adam Hastings who suffered a leg injury playing for the World XV against the Barbarians at Twickenham back in May which has effectively cost him a place at the Rugby World Cup at back-up to Finn Russell.
Providing an update on his key playmaker, Skivington said: “He is not back training yet, he went away with Scotland. He was in a position to try and play and he was fighting through [the injury] and desperate to make the World Cup. Once he was released by Scotland we just decided to pull him out and get him absolutely right because obviously last year we didn’t see a lot of him.”
Last season Hastings suffered a leg injury on international duty with Scotland in the Autumn and then suffered a shoulder injury on Christmas Eve which required surgery, ruling him out until the Spring.
Skivington continued: “He will be good by the time the season starts, we are just making sure we get past the injury he picked up in the Barbarians game which was such a pity because he played well that day and we hoped he was going to get a game for Scotland this summer and go to the World Cup, but him being released gives him an opportunity to get fit, get strong and get right for the start of the season.”
Knee injuries have been all too familiar in the Gloucester rehab room over the last 12 months with backrower Ruan Ackermann, prop Fraser Balmain and centre Mark Atkinson all still recovering having had surgery on the key joint. .
However, Skivington had relatively positive news to share on the trio. Starting with powerhouse Ackermann, who injured his knee against La Rochelle in April, he said: “Ruan is doing bits of training now so he is right at that point of coming back into our programme. He is doing the lower-level stuff like skills and setpiece. He is at the back end of a long road to recovery.”
England international Atkinson has been sidelined since last October after suffering an injury in the win against Bath in just the third round of the Premiership but is nearing a comeback. Skivington said: “He has been in and out. It was a big injury he had so there is no point flogging him in pre-season and then see him break down later in the season. He is there or thereabouts and hopefully he will be in and around the Premiership Cup side.”
After having the 2022/23 season sabotaged by a series of serious injuries, Skivington and his medical and S&C staff have made a number of tweaks to their training programme, reducing the intensity of some sessions, putting increased emphasis on recovery and giving players longer to recover from injuries if there is any doubt.
The former lock explained: “We have got a few players like Adam [Hastings] where they are right at the back end of their recovery and when you have had these lads out for nine months to a year, you could push them, but if it is not quite right we have decided to give them another fortnight. We don’t want to go through the injury situation we had last year. We have five Prem Cup games which we want to be competitive in but it is about the Premiership.”
The good news is Gloucester haven’t lost any additional key figures to injuries during pre-season. Skivington said: “It is only the guys from last year who are out, players like Fraser [Balmain], who are not quite out there and flying around and won’t be for a few weeks. We have still got a bit of a hangover at the start of this year from last year unfortunately but they will all be near enough back for the start of the Premiership.”
Gloucester’s Premiership campaign gets underway on October 14 at home to Harlequins.
Further afield, Skivington had more good news from the Argentina camp, although perhaps less pleasing for England fans ahead of the opening Pool D game of the World Cup, that Matias Alemanno’s knee ligament injury is mending well and the big lock is on track to be fit for the start of the tournament in France.
Skivington added: “His was a six-week injury so he will be good for the World Cup. I don’t think he will be back for their A-team game against Chile [on Saturday] but he will be alright.”
