News

Tigers limping to Italy

Wednesday 15th October 2008

Possible flank option: Tom Croft

Leicester Tigers face the prospect of traveling to Treviso for their Heineken Cup clash on Saturday without a recognised open side flanker due to various injuries.

With Lewis Moody not expected to return to action before November and Ben Herring out with a hamstring injury, Ben Woods injuring his knee ligaments in the 12-6 over the Ospreys on Sunday was unwelcome news for the English side.

Tigers coach Heyneke Meyer said that he would not know the full extent of Woods' injury until he had seen the results of a scan but did say that things did not look good for the 26-year-old former Newcastle player.

"Ben (Woods) has done his knee and is a doubtful starter," Meyer told the Leicester Mercury.

"He will probably be out for quite some time which is not good news for us because Lewis is coming back and Ben Herring is also out. There are three open sides going to be out which is going to make things tough for us.

"There are a few things that we are looking at, and putting Tom Croft in there is definitely one of the options we have."

Marcos Ayerza (arm) and second row Richard Blaze (tonsillitis) are also doubtful for Tigers' second game in Heineken Cup Pool Three, but backs Matt Smith, Johne Murphy and Geordan Murphy are all expected to recover from knocks in time for the trip to Italy.

England lock Louis Deacon looks set to be on the sidelines for some time after the 28-year-old had an operation on a disc in his back in the summer but his return is taking much longer than expected.

The Tigers are now thought to be considering sending him to Europe to see the doctor that worked on Austin Healey and Will Greenwood, Dr Hans Muller-Wohlfahrt.

"I won't confirm it yet but we are looking at sending Louis to get treatment for a week overseas," said Meyer.

"There are no magic solutions. Our medical staff have been good but certain specialists can maybe get a result because they are specialist in their given field.

"It's not like a miracle treatment. We will ask a specialist to have a look at them, see where they are and give us feedback on the rehab and physio stuff.

"If you look at someone like Martin Castrogiovanni (groin and shoulder), he was sent to Italy at one stage because they have different machines there. He came back better and is now in training.

"We will try and find every single way we can to improve a player's fitness. That's our mentality."