Valentine ruled out

[Burgs]

At what point does "a bad run of injuries" become something more serious and needing to be looked into?
Why do some teams have so many more injuries than others in certain years?
Do the lower teams get more because they are pushing all the time to get better and win matches?

Valentine ruled out

April 18, 2007 - 5:04pm
Story by: Sportal

In-form Waratahs scrumhalf Josh Valentine joins Morgan Turinui on the sidelines after being ruled out of this Saturday's Investec Super 14 clash with the Highlanders at Aussie Stadium.

Valentine injured a medial ligament in his knee during his man-of-the-match performance in last week's win over the Reds. Despite passing an elementary fitness test on Tuesday, the Test No.9 has been ruled out of this weekend's round 12 match.

With fellow Test half Brett Sheehan also sidelined with a rib injury, Josh Holmes is set to make his debut Super 14 start at No.9 with either utility back Daniel Halangahu or academy scrumhalf Nathan Sievert on the bench as cover.

Waratahs head coach Ewen McKenzie admitted that even among the mountainous injury toll this year, the loss of the first and second choice scrumhalf left the squad with a difficult assignment this weekend.

"As tests go they don't come much bigger than having two Wallaby no.9’s out injured," McKenzie said.

"Josh (Valentine) had been responding well to treatment but he won't make it in time.

"He was always a slim chance at best which is a shame given the quality of his performance last week."

After losing Turinui to a knee injury for the rest of the season, the loss of Valentine is huge blow for the Waratahs, while the news doesn't get any better with lock Ben Hand also in doubt after suffering a back injury in training this week.

He will be monitored in coming days with the squad to be announced on Thursday

[prop53]

bad luck

[GIGS20]

I think you hit the nail on the head there Burgs, with a bunch of injuries on the books, coaches are often forced to make one of two unreasonable decisions.
1 Play an experienced player who is not 100% fit
2 Play an inexperienced player instead of risking a superstar with early return

either way you're risking someone getting hurt. In case 1 you risk losing your star for even more time, in case 2 you risk the players around the replacement simply because they have to (and usually do) give so much more for the team to succeed, not to mention being the recipient of one or three hospital passes.