Quade out of action for four months

[blueandblack]

Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper is set to miss this year's Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship due to shoulder and hip surgery.

Cooper faces a 16-week recovery after MRI scans on Monday confirmed he requires an operation to heal the AC joint injury he suffered on Saturday night against the Melbourne Rebels.

He will go under the knife on Tuesday and also use his long rehabilitation period to have arthroscopic surgery to clean up loose cartilage in his hip.

With the hip surgery taking 12 weeks to recover from, Cooper isn't expecting to be back to full fitness until mid-September.

By that time, he would have missed next month's three-Test series against France, the rest of the Super Rugby competition, the opening two Bledisloe Tests and two more Rugby Championship matches.

Read more: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...#ixzz329sJVHaF

[jono]

Gets worse for QLD hey. Hopefully he heals well.

[zimeric]

Never a nice thing to hear. No matter who it is. . Now if only Sias had been here another year. .

[The InnFORCEr]

Don't wish any injury on anyone, however it could be a blessing in disguise to give others a crack.

[jargan83]

Foley vs Lealiifano vs Toomua?

[hertryk]

Don't wish any injury on anyone, however it could be a blessing in disguise to give others a crack.

I don't think he would have been Link's first choice for the gold jersey anyway if all is correct and the selection will be on form.. IMveryHO!!

[Kept One]

Does this provide an opportunity for Kyle Godwin to come into the squad as cover in the backline?

[Alison]

Haven't seen Kyle's name mentioned in any of the newspaper speculation so far - needless to say, only East Coast names have been mentioned.......

[chiraag]

Think this is probably a blessing in disguise. Quade is just too much of a liability in the really big games vs NZ and SA. Would love to see
10. Toomua
12. Godwin

Would have great defense, and both are dangerous runners with a good passing game, so would create lots of space and opportunities for those outside of them. Would like to see Foley given a bit of a go against the Frogs as well.

[GIGS20]

the only issue with Quade going down is the loss of "X factor" he's really the only unpredictable 10 running around in Australia ATM. That being said, Dan Carter was always predictable, but it didn't stop him tearing teams apart.

[chiraag]

Yeah, I'll take good and predicatble over flashy and unpredicatable any day at international level. Quade always looks good against lesser opposition or when we're well on top, but when under pressure if often far less impressive.

X-factor can be provided by Folau, Beale (I'd only have him on the bench if at all though) and Foley when needed I reckon.

If we just play old school, smart Aussie rugby with set plays, good structures, good support play, etc. then there's generally not too much need for individual brilliance.

[GIGS20]

If we just play old school, smart Aussie rugby with set plays, good structures, good support play, etc. then there's generally not too much need for individual brilliance.

All I'm saying is that there's times when you want it......and now we won't have any