The England and Northampton prop Alex Corbisiero will this week have another knee operation, raising fears about his future at the top level.
Corbisiero forged a reputation as the best scrummaging loosehead prop in Europe after his exploits for the 2013 Lions, but his career since then has been beset by injuries, and he has yet to appear this season.
The 27-year-old started only seven Tests in the Stuart Lancaster era, the last in 2012, and he has not played since coming on as a replacement, 18 minutes from the end, in England’s first World Cup warm-up match against France, at Twickenham, in August.
He was left out of the World Cup because of a back injury, but knee problems have dogged him throughout his career and he will have surgery on Tuesday, two months before the start of the Six Nations.
“It is not a major operation, more a clean-out,” said Northampton’s director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, after the 13-11 Premiership victory at Bath. “We do not know how long he will be out for, but it will certainly be a few weeks. He will not be thinking about the Six Nations: that is a long way off for him. It is not good, but he is being positive and so are we.”
Northampton, who hope their other injured England forwards Courtney Lawes, Dylan Hartley and Tom Wood will be fit to play in the back-to-back Champions Cup matches against Racing 92 in the next two weeks, have made light of Corbisiero’s absence, with the Waller brothers, Alex and Ethan, impressing up front.
The scrum was a major factor in the victory at Bath, much to the disgust of the home side’s head coach, Mike Ford. “The scrum has become a lottery,” he said. “It is ruining the game and deciding who wins. You are 13-11 down with seven minutes to go and they are taken up by scrums. Nobody knows what is going on in them, but they are having far too great an influence.”
