Danny Cipriani may be out of action until December after sustaining a medial knee ligament tear in Wasps’ Premiership defeat by Harlequins. He is not expected to resume playing for between eight and 12 weeks, ending the fly-half’s already remote hopes of a recall to England’s preliminary autumn training squad.
Cipriani was hurt in the final moments at the Ricoh Arena having only just returned to the field from the sin-bin. The 29-year-old had been enjoying a decent start to the season as Wasps’ main playmaker but will now miss at least the first two rounds of the European Champions Cup as well as several Premiership fixtures starting with Sunday’s match against the defending champions, Exeter.
He will also now spend his 30th birthday in early November on the sidelines, with Owen Farrell, George Ford, Alex Lozowski and Harlequins’ 18-year-old Marcus Smith ahead of him in the England fly-half pecking order, according to Eddie Jones, who names his training squad on Friday for next week’s short camp in Oxford.
Wasp’s only consolation is that the New Zealander No10 Jimmy Gopperth is fit again after an ankle knock, with the imminent return of the flanker Thomas Young from a torn calf also reinforcing a currently battered squad. The back-row Alex Rieder dislocated a shoulder against Quins and will be out for around four months following surgery, while the scrum-half, Dan Robson, has a knee problem and will be out for another fortnight. The locks James Gaskell (hamstring) and Kearnan Myall (ankle) could be missing for up to four weeks and 10 weeks respectively.
“It’s obviously not ideal to be without some of our key players but it’s likely to happen to a number of clubs at some stage during the season,” said the Wasps director of rugby, Dai Young. “You feel for the players who have picked up injuries, particularly those who look like they will be out for a few weeks when they’ve been playing well in the opening part of the season.”
Worcester have signed the Leicester scrum-half Jono Kitto on a short-term loan deal as cover for the currently injured Luke Baldwin and Jonny Arr. Kitto, a former New Zealand Under-20 international, caught the eye of Worcester’s coaches when scoring a fine solo try in a recent A League game at Sixways.
