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Quade Cooper in doubt for Wallabies as he suffers another shoulder injury ahead of the Rugby Championship
Quade Cooper's immediate future with the Wallabies has come under a fresh injury cloud as the five-eighth battles another shoulder injury ahead of the Rugby Championship.
After parting ways with the Reds on the weekend, Cooper's long-term future has dominated headlines as he weighs up a move overseas to Toulon or a new deal with the Australian Rugby Union, part of which could include the Sevens program.
But Cooper has more immediate concerns as he consults medical staff about his shoulder, which Fairfax Media understands was injured in the Reds' final game of the season against the Waratahs.
It has been a dire season for Cooper in terms of injuries. He broke his collarbone in the Queensland Reds pre-season before doing the same to his scapula in April.
Cooper has been among a number of players yet to make an appearance at the Wallaby train-on squad sessions and has been consulting medical staff over the past few days.
The seriousness of the injury remains unknown at this point.
Cooper needs seven Tests to reach a mark that would enable him to play overseas and remain eligible for the Wallabies. Michael Cheika has a strong desire to ensure he gets Cooper over the line but appears to have suffered a set-back before the jump.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/au...24-ghw849.html
Sounds like injuries are starting to catch up with him, especially as he tends to get rushed back to play before fully healing and getting match-fit playing at lower levels. This is what happened to Wilkinson and it took him retiring from England before he got a decent enough break to heal up and stop playing injured.
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon
Conspiracy theory time:
I reckon the reason the QRU have backed out is because he wanted a short term deal eg 1 or 2 years. He knows he may not get enough Test Rugby this year and he wants to qualify for the 60 Test foreign player scheme.
I did see somewhere (and several days ago) the suggestion that the shoulder injury is a lot worse than anyone is letting on. The better conspiracy theory though is that playing those seven games and making himself eligible for Wallabies call-up might not do his value overseas much good...
We desperately need a quality fly half who can run our backline, it is our biggest single weakness. However, I really value the current "no dickheads" policy and was proud of RugbyWA when they dropped negotiations with O'Connor because of his unrealistic demands.
I really want a quality fly half, but I value the above policy more.
My sentiments exactly Macattack
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Cheika on rugby HQ has indicated he is aware that the ARU still has an offer on the table for quade even though reds have said no. Said also he should be OK to play in the RC.
Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate
ARU contracts are all the way to dec 31st I think. So he would have always been ok for the WC
I assume he's talking about the possible injury.
Looks like QC paid his way out of the Toulon deal to stay in aus