WILLEM Nel, a key player for Vern Cotter's Scotland side, has been ruled out of the RBS Six Nations Championship because of a neck injury, and could face a longer absence if it is decided that surgery is required.
A statement from Scottish Rugby yesterday confirmed what had been feared since the tighthead prop was injured while playing for Edinburgh against Harlequins last Saturday. Nel lasted less than half an hour of that match before being forced off with a head knock, and while the initial reason for his being substituted was his failure of a head-injury assessment, it became clear earlier this week that he had also suffered a recurrence of the neck strain that had kept him out of action for more than two months.
“Scotland and Edinburgh Rugby prop Willem Nel has been ruled out of the forthcoming RBS 6 Nations with a neck injury, it was confirmed today,” Scottish Rugby said. “A MRI scan on Wednesday (18 January) at Spire Murrayfield Hospital revealed that the tighthead prop damaged an intervertebral disc in his neck during a significant collision in his club’s European Challenge Cup win over Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday (14 January). Nel will now have a second specialist assessment at Spire this Monday (23 January) to consider his programme of recovery, including whether corrective surgery is required.”
If surgery is required, it is probable that Nel will not play again this season. In any case, his absence from the Six Nations has already made it highly unlikely that he will be back in action in time to win a place on the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand - the squad for the three-Test series will be announced in mid-April.
The absence of Nel makes it likely that Zander Fagerson, the Glasgow Warriors tighthead, will wear the No 3 jersey in Scotland’s opening match of the Six Nations, against Ireland at Murrayfield a fortnight today. Fagerson, who celebrated his 21st birthday this week, has four caps.
The other tightheads in the 37-man Scotland squad announced on Wednesday are Jon Welsh of Newcastle Falcons, who won the most recent of his 11 caps in the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Australia, and Edinburgh’s Simon Berghan, who is uncapped.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here