Brumbies Hooker Stephen Moore set to miss six to eight weeks of Super Rugby with ankle injury

The Australian March 17, 2011 7:59AM

Yet another indispensable Wallabies forward has joined the Rugby World Cup year injury list, with Brumbies hooker Stephen Moore set to miss up to eight weeks of Super Rugby with a high ankle syndesmosis.

Moore was replaced in the 65th minute of the Brumbies' 52-10 loss to the Crusaders in Nelson on Friday with what seemed nothing more serious than a sprained left ankle but scans revealed worse than expected damage.

"The ligament at the front has been torn and the one at the back partially torn," Moore told The Australian. "I'm lucky to a degree. If they had both been fully torn, I probably would have needed surgery."

As it is, the 55-Test veteran is facing between six and eight weeks of rehabilitation, the first couple while wearing a moon boot. Happily, the Brumbies have both their byes in the next six weeks, their first this weekend, but they still have to face a series of crunch games without their most experienced forward.

The first is the annual grudge match against New South Wales Waratahs in Canberra on March 26 and, just to add to the gloom in Brumbyland, NSW will use that match to relaunch its own Wallabies hooker, Tatafu Polota-Nau.

The rampaging Waratahs No.2 is being rested against the Cheetahs in Sydney on Saturday night to give him an extra week to recover from his knee injury.

Moore joins a dozen current or former Wallabies on the injured list, and while some are unlikely to feature prominently in coach Robbie Deans' plans, others, such as captain Rocky Elsom, David Pocock, James Horwill, Rob Horne and Polota-Nau are set to play key roles in Australia's World Cup campaign.

Queensland Reds centre Will Chambers, another player who at the start of the season looked likely to have a major role to play for the Wallabies, also has suffered a major setback, but not of the physical kind.

The former Melbourne Storm NRL star has been dropped from the Reds line-up to play the Rebels at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.

Right from the moment he flubbed the easiest of tries against Western Force in the Reds' opening match, this season has gone woefully for Chambers who, only eight months ago, was in such form he had a berth on the Wallabies tour at his mercy.

Those hopes were dashed when he damaged his shoulder playing for Australia A against England and was forced to undergo a reconstruction.