No England player is enduring worse luck with injuries than Jack Nowell. The Exeter wing, still recovering from the ankle and knee damage sustained in last season’s Premiership final, has undergone an operation to remove his appendix and is again struggling to be fit for the World Cup.
The good news for Nowell is that Eddie Jones has indicated the 26-year-old will fly to Japan with the squad on Sunday but the player has spent much of the last few days in hospital recovering from surgery after reporting stomach pains on arrival at England’s training camp in Treviso.
There are precedents for players recovering swiftly from such operations, not least Castleford’s Luke Gale who scored the vital sudden-death drop goal that earned his club a place in the Super League Grand final two years ago 16 days after having his appendix removed. While Nowell is a similarly tough customer, this is a further untimely setback he could have done without.
England have to weigh up the pros and cons of taking a player who may not be ready to go until the back end of the pool stages at the earliest. New Zealand and Wales have taken similar punts with Brodie Retallick and Cory Hill respectively and England’s assistant coach, John Mitchell, says Nowell still has every chance of being involved.
“At this point in time we back Jack and we’ll support him,” Mitchell said. “We wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing unless we thought that’s the way he’s heading. He’s a resilient bugger and a good character. Not a lot gets him down.
“But like any competitive athlete you want to be training and playing. It’s a hard space to sit in. There will come a point where we have to make a decision over what’s best for the team.”
Even Nowell himself concedes the past couple of years have tested his resolve. Before his latest misfortune he had suffered a fractured cheekbone and eye socket, broken a thumb, damaged both his ankles and endured knee and hamstring trouble.
“Normally I’m pretty positive and can find something to work on but I have really struggled,” he said. “I’ve found myself playing, getting injured, having an operation, doing my rehab, finally being fit, getting three or four games under my belt and feeling a bit more robust, only to pick up another injury. I always say that, if you get five or six games under your belt, your body is then used to playing.”
England also look set to be without Nowell’s clubmate Henry Slade against Italy in Newcastle on Friday, with the centre still not totally recovered from the knee problem that has kept him out of warm-up games to date.
On the flip side Bath’s Ruaridh McConnochie has completed three full training sessions and should finally be available to make his Test debut at the third time of asking.
Sod’s law, meanwhile, is applying on the weather front, with thunderstorms and cloud temporarily diluting the supposed hot, humid conditions that England are meant to be acclimatising to.
There has been no sightseeing either, with gondola rides in nearby Venice absent from the schedule. Sale’s Tom Curry did not sound too disappointed. “I’m not that fussed about Venice. We’ve got the canals in Manchester,” the flanker said. Thank you, Marco Polo.
