The full details of Gareth Anscombe's horrendous knee injury have been revealed as Warren Gatland denied the Wales outside-half compounded its severity by playing on against England.
It's emerged Anscombe damaged his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and cartilage and will require surgery that is set to wipe out his entire season.
Gatland revealed it happened when he made a break down the right wing during the first-half, jarring his knee as he stepped off his right foot.
And, in the wake of criticism for not removing him sooner, he insisted medics have confirmed he didn't make the problem worse by playing on.
"Gareth Anscombe has done an ACL and a meniscus (cartilage) so he’s done a really good job on that," Gatland said.
"He did it when he made the break down the sideline. It wasn’t from a tackle, he’s just stepped off his right leg. You can see the jarring on the video. He said to the physios he felt he had jarred his knee and stayed on thinking he could run it off. He asked the physios if he’d done any more damage and they said: ‘No, you’d already done that and it wasn’t going to get any worse’.
"Unfortunately, he’s going to require surgery and it’s going to keep him out for most of the season.”
Gatland and Wales have faced criticism from Wales legend JJ Williams for not removing the outside-half from the field immediately. Anscombe played on for nearly 15 minutes afterwards, before being helped from the field.
Wales were initially optimistic the injury wasn't that serious but a scan on Monday delivered the heartbreaking news.
Speaking on Monday night, the outside-half said: "It's not quite the way I was hoping my World Cup dream would finish.
"It's been a pretty tough 24 hours to take but I’m very thankful and humbled for all the kind well wishes.
"I'm still wrapping my head around what’s happened and what’s next but I’m excited to watch this Wales team go on and do something special."
